How to Design a Public Permaculture Food Forest

Here we are at the Student Experience Center Edible Garden in the heart of Oregon State University campus. We're hoping to give you a sense of all sorts of different types of food for us in this class. So while you've seen some really wild looking food for us, we wanted to show you one that's in a more manicured setting here in the center of campus at Oregon State University. It's right in the heart of Oregon State University campus and there's fruit throughout the year. I was just eating honey berries and strawberries. There's an apple right here that's doing really nicely. I saw raspberries and blueberries and there's even a persimmon to close out the year by offering edible fruit in November. Not only that but they've mixed it with all sorts of other plants to support the growth of the plants. I know that there's day lilies which tend to flower throughout the season if given enough water and since this is a high visibility area they have this on drip irrigation to make sure that it always looks good. I've seen thyme as an edible plant in the understory of this area. It both attracts beneficial insects with its flowers and also is an important culinary herb. It also has aromatic qualities. There's a lot of pressure when you're designing a food forest in a highly trafficked area like this. You need to make sure it looks good throughout the year and is always highly aesthetic so it takes some tending and some thoughtful design. Blueberries are a great plant that look good throughout the season. They have nice fall color. This tree is loaded in berries. One thing I've noticed that really helps when many people are observing your forest is having clean lines, clean pathways which show people how they can move through this space and clean edges so that it looks well contained, tidy and cared for. Right here we have the clean edge to this food forest that's lined with day lilies and a type of grass which are low maintenance plants that look beautiful throughout the year. We've got some low growing thyme. By having these plants take up space on the soil it prevents weeding by having plants that do well in that niche, in that environment. Other plants that are here are we've got lavender for fragrance. We've got lots of blueberries. Every plant has its own diameter around it which is nicely mulched. Honeyberry here is holding some nice space in the food forest. Honeyberries sometimes are evergreen which also helps for things looking good throughout the year. So you want to have your things that look good in spring, summer, fall and winter and most designers will start planning from the time when it's most difficult to have something looking lovely which is this persimmon which looks beautiful in the darkness of the winter with the orange fruit hanging onto it bringing up being a focal point for this food forest. So as you can see from looking in the at the traditional landscaping that is around the corner from this food forest this landscaping is every bit as beautiful as that one over there and the difference is that this one produces ecological functions and yields through the intention of its design. Naturally when you're working on a college campus you get hungry and you need to find something to eat. Do you go to the dining hall or do you just need a couple strawberries to make it through the next class? It's nice to have food that you find along your pathways or opportunities to observe wildlife and learn about the world just outside the windows whether that's looking outside the windows from your office or your classroom to be able to see wildlife nesting in the trees or being able to wander through and hear the sweet sounds of the birds. One thing I like about this food forest is that they even included this little meander here as an invitation for people to be able to walk through and enjoy the strawberries, enjoy the apples, enjoy the smell of the thyme and eat the raspberries. It's exhausting studying every day and sitting through classes maybe listening to some boring professor drone on about whatever it is. Strawberries can make it all that better. You might be thinking how do I know if I design a food forest in a public space that people aren't going to eat all my fruit? Well sometimes they might but sometimes you can design in special plants that people won't know what to eat. So some things like raspberries are going to produce like crazy and there'll probably be plenty for everyone to eat but not enough raspberries maybe for you to put in the freezer every three days like I do at my house. They're pretty common and people recognize them so putting them along the pathway is an invitation. Other plants like this persimmon a lot of people don't even know what to do with it. I know I brought persimmons to three different people in the tech department here at Oregon State and they had never eaten one before. So whoever planted this persimmon if they like it it might be pretty likely that they're going to be able to eat most of the food from this persimmon. The familiarity that the public has with the fruit that you plant influences how likely they are to glean your harvest.