Perimeter f0r the potential site marked off at Thursday evening’s meeting
The perimeter for the potential Lawcon Park Food Forest was marked off at the third public meeting for the edible garden on Thursday evening, July 17, at the site near Lawcon Park. That location is at the southeast corner of Mountain Lake, and at the northwest corner of the park. “The plan,” relayed Nathan Harder, who is spearheading the project, “is to start small and work up. The site being looked at has a lot of good things going for it, including that it is easily accessible to the public.”
Research continues on what plant communities will work well together; ones that can cohabitate in the Minnesota climate. At the next meeting, slated for Thursday, September 18, beginning at 7 p.m., in Mountain Lake City Hall, a design for the Food Forest will be approved, along with specific species of plants.
Attending this meeting, as well as the prior two, was Diana Madsen of Heron Lake, a health educator connected to the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) at Des Moines Valley Health and Human Services (DVHHS). SHIP is about creating good health for parents, kids and the whole community by decreasing obesity and reducing the number of people who use tobacco and are exposed to tobacco smoke. Madsen and SHIP are working with the project to assist, via grants, in the purchase of trees, plants and signage identifying what has been planted as well as educating the public on the varieties of trees and plants.
Food forest gardens are new to the United States. A food forest is based on an ecological model of an actual forest and features many plant layers as well.
* The upper layer is composed of canopy trees. Trees are planted that will grow large and provide fruit or nut produce, or something else for human use. These could apple or pear fruit trees or walnut trees. Perhaps even hybrid chestnut or hazelnut trees.
* The next layer is a variety of fruit trees; apple, plum, etc.
* Then there are the vines – like grapes – that would climb the trunks of the medium trees.
*Below the fruit trees would be edible shrubs, most notably berry shrubs, such as red and black currants, raspberries, gooseberries, chokecherries, seaberries, cranberries, strawberries. Selections would be made on the hardiness, the ruggedness of the variety, in order to weather Minnesota climate patterns.
* These are followed by grasses, or even flowering plants that could be herbal in nature or provide sources for pollinators, such as honey bees or maybe wild asparagus.
* The lowest level would be fungi. This is where you find edible mushrooms, such as shiitake mushrooms.
