The Forest for the Trees

There was much activity on the corner of Albion and Flinders Streets today. Apart from all the rain and cloud action, we had trees and visitors aplenty.

Yesterday it seemed like an achievement to get two trees in the ground, today we planted considerably more, albeit somewhat smaller.

Here is one very special gardener with a very special delivery: olives, lemon verbena, rosemary, riberry and pecan.

And dianella and lomandra longifolia, the latter whose leaves contain a fibre that can be used in basket-making, weaving and to make string. Their flowers can be eaten raw, or dried and ground to make a flour for dense cakes.

We also planted a variety of citrus: grapefruit, mandarin, lime, lemon, orange and kumquat.

We also planted feijoas, coastal rosemary, lilly pilly, Brazilian guava, Hawaiian guava, avocados, lemon grass, loquat and cherimoya, which Mark Twain described as, "the most delicious fruit known."

With all the rain and planting the ground was getting pretty muddy, so we barrowed some mulch to make a path.

Then we cut down some trees and whittled them into stakes. Ha ha, not likely, although maybe one day the Forest will be abundant enough.

We fastened some hessian tree-tie to them, to support and guard each plant.

Just as the rain cleared, St Michael's Rev Francis Chalwell (right) came to say hello and introduce Bishop Alan Stewart.

And then a little later, Greens Senator, Scott Ludlam, Sustainable Cities portfolio, (right) and Tony Hickey, Greens candidate for the Federal seat of Sydney, (middle), came to see the Forest.

Dignitaries abounded, but the really very special guest was a visit by a beautiful native minor bird who danced around the oranges and had us entranced.

As well as updating this blog with the Forest activity, we have been documenting the progress on digital film, which we will edit into a short piece a little later on. Watch this space.

The First Trees

We had another early start today. It was cold, so we all hooked in to the task of weeding, breaking up the clay, and preparing the ground for the first trees to be planted.

This is our friend Josh, who travelled up to Sydney to work with us on the Forest. Not only are you a gun with a shovel, Josh, but you're a great person to be around.

This project may be credited to the Artist as Family, but there's no way we could do this without the help we have received from people such as Josh, Anna at the MCA, Rachel, whose lodgings we crash out in each night, our friends back home who have been ringing and emailing their support, and people we meet on a daily basis such as Owen.

This is Owen. Our two main trees arrived on the back of his truck this morning.

Here comes the Spanish Chestnut. At 5 meters in height, she makes a very grand entrance and is carefully steered into her place at the head of the Forest.

Next up comes the Indian Horse Chestnut, generously donated by Michael Pfhal at Treekeepers Nursery, Bowral, NSW, who also grew the Spanish.

In an attempt to prevent the untiring couch grass from taking over the forest floor, we have weeded out every last skerrick of root and leaf, and today, laid black plastic in a trench around the periphery of the Forest as a barrier.

The couch grass may be indefatigable, but we mere mortals are not.

Sleep well chestnuts! See you on site in the morning.

That Ancient Ceremony

Gardening is not a rational act. What matters is the immersion of the hands in the earth, that ancient ceremony of which the Pope kissing the tarmac is merely a pallid vestigial remnant.
- Margaret Atwood

Today we lived our homage to Ms Atwood. We lived it in the rain. With two pairs of socks beneath our gum boots. We lived it in the rain as we intimately weeded the Food Forest floor, alongside magpies foraging for worms.

We lived it in the rain with our garden forks as we removed rocks and broken bricks and small tiles. And then we lived it with our shovels in hand as we mixed into the earth topsoil, compost and dynamic lifter, readying it for the trees that arrive tomorrow.

Roaming

We have a big week of planting ahead of us, so we decided to take the weekend off to roam.

Even though it wasn't on our agenda, each day we started off at St Michael's to check that everything was as we left it.


The wind was chilly, but the sun was out. Perfect weather for drifting.

Good night. See you on site tomorrow.

Tools Up

We got up early today. The bobcat was due at 7am and we wanted to edge the Forest before it arrived.

Our OH&S officer was standing by.

And then it arrived!

And got to work right away.

So we found other things to inspect.

Such as our first shipment of trees to arrive. Want to know what they are? Come back next week and we'll show you, when we make them feel at home in the soil.

But we can show you what arrived next: 4 cubic meters of steaming fresh compost mulch and 10 cubic meters of top soil. Now that was a satisfying dump..

Before adding these arrivals to the mix, we still need to weed and remove all the debris we find, such as the buried treasure we uncovered this afternoon.

But by far, the best arrivals of the day, are the passers by who stop to ask what we're doing, and the friends who drop by to say g'day.

And the most satisfying aspect of the day? Seeing the shape of things to come.

Day One: Forming the Forest

It might have taken us a whole day to get from home to Sydney, but once we arrived on site it didn't take us long to:

Contemplate the space,

hammer in the stakes,

have a look around,

catch up with old friends,

lay out the hose to get the shape right,

do some painting

and

decorating.

Then we stood back and contempled the space again, that won't look like this for much longer.

Cross-community purposes

Back in April, when we were desperate to find a home for the Food Forest, CarriageWorks tried really hard to accommodate us; we just couldn't find enough raw dirt to work with for our particular project. But while visiting CarriageWorks we got to see what the community was able to grow in terms of food, high up in the air, and it was pretty damn exciting. There are peeps all over the world growing food on balconies, rooftops and in sunlit living rooms. Projects like the CarriageWorks Kitchen Garden show us that you don't necessarily need a plot of land to relocalise your food supply.

Find out more here.

Here comes everybody

Augmenting the spirit of our forthcoming Plant-in Day:

Alexandria permablitz in Sydney. A course taken by Milkwood Permaculture. Picture taken by Lucas Ihlein, a participant of the course and another artist whose work will be featured in In the Balance: Art for a changing world.

And, the joyous Angel Street Permaculture garden in Newtown:

Plant List

After several weeks of sourcing available food plants we have come up with the following list, which we have ordered from several nurseries in NSW and Victoria. We would still like to find a pistachio, so if anyone knows of one in Sydney please send the details to us. Also we welcome those of you in Sydney to come along to the community plant-in day on Saturday 10 July, between 10am - 4pm. Please bring a picnic and a clump of something edible, beneficial or herbal from your garden, or gleaned, that you'd like to see growing in the Food Forest. We're particularly looking for strawberries, thyme, mints, lavender, comfrey, borage, calendula, nasturtiums, sage and any annual or perennial vegetable seeds or seedlings you'd like to plant.

Bush foods and local Cadigal plants:

Pigface

Native parsnip

Coastal rosemary

White root

Dianella caerulea

Lomandra longifolia (Matt Rush)

Westringia fruticosa (Native rosemary)

Podocarpus elatus (Illawara plum)

Acmena smithii (Lilly Pilly)

Riberry

World food plants:

Tangelo

Apricot Moorpark

Necatrine Goldmine

Nectarine Fantasta

Peach Red Noonan

Peach Anzac

Fig Black Genoa

Mulberry Hicks

Multi Graft Plum Satsuma/Mariposa

Cherry Morello

Spanish chestnut

Indian horse chestnut

Pecan Desirable

Almond

Citrus lemon

Citrus lime

Citrus orange

Rosemary

Feijoa

Guava Brazilian

Guava Hawaiian

Grapefruit Rio Red

Kumquat Calamondin

Avocado

Cherimoya White

Lemon Grass

Lemon Verbena

French Sorrel

Mushroom Plant

Loquat Seedling Nagasakiwase

Olive Azapa

Permission to plant

We have just received a wonderful letter of support from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC), the legal custodians of the Food Forest.

"We hold great pride and respect for our culture and fully support the way in which the food forest will educate the wider community on Aboriginal history and culture." Rebecca McHugh, MLALC

Today we also spoke to Helen from Marrickville Community Nursery, a biodiversity nursery that specialises in plants native to the Cooks River in Sydney. Many of these plants are also native to Surry Hills, so we'll be making our way there shortly to buy bush food plants for the forest.

A list of Cadigal Wangal Edible Plants will benefit any Sydney food garden. To produce food while renewing local ecology is a significant principal of permaculture, and this can be achieved on a balcony, in a backyard or on a farm.

From field to forest

When you get right down to it, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary - Masanobu Fukuoka

While Meg and Zephyr were digging up more potatoes and tickling the first garlic shoots up out of the frosty Djadjawurrung soil in the home garden, Anna Davis (MCA) and Patrick met with the St Michael's church wardens late last week to finalise the agreement to allow the Food Forest to go ahead on this ancient Cadigal site in Surry Hills, Sydney. Here are the set of working drawings Patrick presented to the group on behalf of the Artist as Family. (click for bigger)

Some members from the local community, including both church and non-church groups, have now been asked to choose from this plant list their more desired fruit, herbs and nuts. If you wish to participate in the development of this Food Forest please comment below your desired food plants and we'll see how we can include your suggestions as we begin to source plants. But be quick as we aim to start planting in the first week of July, pending approval from the traditional owners.

Anyone wishing to help us with the planting in July please follow this blog and we'll keep you informed as to the when and how. Indigenous locals and non-indigenous residents who can help build information relating to Cadigal plants and medicines, your input is highly sought after.