United States' first food forest to be built in Seattle

[merithyn]

Quick Meri-- scare him with your shotgun!  You did get one, right?

Not yet.

I hope this fall. The girl needed money for volleyball and braces.

[Ed Anger]

first food poisoning case connected to it and it'll be dug up within 5 years.

[Malthus]

I dunno. Strikes me that having literally hundreds of species means dealing with hundreds of different kinds of pest, disease, and parasite.

This does not strike me as a cost and labour minimizing strategy. But perhaps my early experiences of agriculture - which convinced me that wringing actual food from the jaws of nature was a tough proposition - have soured me. Having weekends spent picking off potato beetles and cabbage cutworms can do that. 

The permaculture philosophy entails planting the right kinds of plants near each other to help alleviate those kinds of problems. Just as they happen in nature rather than as they do in a structured, row garden. I've seen gardens like this, and they work amazingly well. I've never seen one this size before, nor have I known of any to be open for others to pick from. Because all of this requires a certain amount of balance, the way the fruits and such are harvested will probably affect how it all grows.

Only time will tell if it works, but I certainly hope it does.

I've looked for food in nature (again, one of the benefits of having a wilderness-survival-nut for a dad; you get to try out being a hunter-gatherer as well as an agriculturalist). It is generally not free of bugs. Bugs are part of nature, too. The unpleasant (yet fascinating) part.

Anything you like to eat, there are bugs that like to eat, too. They often get there first.

[Caliga]

It's meant to be a permaculture forest, which means that it should require very little ongoing work compared to a typical field of veggies and fruits.

I realize this is the hippies talking and not you but... apples don't just magically grow themselves.  You have to do a lot of work to help the trees give a decent yield in the first place (pruning, training) and then more to keep fungus and critters from devouring the apples.  Trust me on this one.

[Caliga]

I've looked for food in nature (again, one of the benefits of having a wilderness-survival-nut for a dad; you get to try out being a hunter-gatherer as well as an agriculturalist). It is generally not free of bugs. Bugs are part of nature, too. The unpleasant (yet fascinating) part.

Anything you like to eat, there are bugs that like to eat, too. They often get there first.

Yeah and... unless you spray the living shit out of apples and/or bag them, you won't have apples that look 'nice' like the ones you get at the supermarket, and therefore most people aren't going to want to touch them.

[derspiess]

Yeah, I wouldn't touch the pears that grow on my pear tree in front of the house 

[crazy canuck]

While it is undoubtly true that the area where you live is not as affluent or as enlightened as Vancouver (few areas of the world are) that has nothing to do with whether a fee is paid or not.

Given that the fee pays for the upkeep of the garden area - something the city doesn't feel it should pay for - I'd say that it has everything to do with both.

A Fee = not as affluent
City doesn't feel it should pay = not as enlightened (by your standard)

Regardless, the point is that my comments were appropriate. Despite your best continued wishes, the whole of the world does not run as it does in Vancouver. You may have to broaden your horizons a bit and imagine a world beyond your personal borders so that you can converse with others on topics that you do not know well.

Your underlying assumption is that any of what I was talking about costs the city anything.  If you go back an re-read my posts it doesnt.  Which is why I said that your version of urban community gardening is different than it is here.

It is also too bad the rest of the world does do it like we do.  The world would be a better place.

[crazy canuck]

It's meant to be a permaculture forest, which means that it should require very little ongoing work compared to a typical field of veggies and fruits.

I realize this is the hippies talking and not you but... apples don't just magically grow themselves. 

I dont know, for years we had a large apple tree in our back yard that produced the most delicious apples I have ever had.  All we did was pick the apples (and transport most of them to the food bank because there were way too many for us to eat on our own).

[derspiess]

If I had a surplus of apples in my backyard I'd shoot them.  WITH GUNS.

[crazy canuck]

If I had a surplus of apples in my backyard I'd shoot them.  WITH GUNS.

You would do that even if there was no surplus.

[derspiess]

If I had a surplus of apples in my backyard I'd shoot them.  WITH GUNS.

You would do that even if there was no surplus.

Nah, not if I have to buy it.  When I go to the plinking range I shoot at milk jugs & large plastic juice bottles filled with water.

When watermelons get cheap I might buy a couple of those to try out.

[Ed Anger]

Hmmmmmm....apple butter.

[Caliga]

I dont know, for years we had a large apple tree in our back yard that produced the most delicious apples I have ever had.  All we did was pick the apples (and transport most of them to the food bank because there were way too many for us to eat on our own).

Yeah, but see your tree was in Canada, and Canada is a magical place where everything is perfect.

[derspiess]

Hmmmmmm....apple butter.

Yeah, you are old

[Caliga]

 

Apple butter on biscuits = DELICIOUS.