Progress Report: Virginia Avenue Site, St. Elmo
Before
On Saturday, November 11th, a hardy group of volunteers tackled the hillside at our Virginia Avenue site, hauling up cardboard, fallen autumn leaves, and mulch, which will in time cover the entire hillside, smothering the grass underneath and building up a new layer of organic matter, preparing the ground- literally!- for late winter and spring plantings. We also secured and hauled up the hill logs of various lengths and degrees of decomposition and arranged them into berms running across the slope; for some of them we began shallow trenches on the up-hill sides, piling the earth in front. Towards the end of winter, by which time we hope the ground will have softened somewhat, we’ll be making the swale and berm system more substantial, digging out the trenched section and adding additional organic matter. These berms will help to slow down rainwater that would otherwise rush down the site (and into storm drains), potentially causing erosion as we begin to plant, and will instead capture the rainwater, infiltrating it into the soil and making it available for the guilds of plants we’ll be putting in place come later winter and spring.
After
We also seeded out some cover crops- Daikon radish, clover, and vetch- at various points on the site, particularly at the base of the hill in a section of ground that is very compacted and eroded, with especially poor soil. Over the coming months we will continue to build up soil in these locations, and will put in more permanent plantings come spring and summer.
In other exciting news, Scenic City Arborists in Chattanooga agreed to remove and chip several leyland cypresses that we need out of the way in order to build some supporting infrastructure for the food forest- signage, raised gardening beds for annual vegetables, and a water catchment system. We are waiting on the electric company to trim some branches touching the overhead wires before the trees can be taken down, so it will probably be sometime this winter when this work is finished and we can begin the process of installing our built infrastructure.
I want to give a shout-out to everyone who has participated so far, from gathering materials to laying out cardboard to hauling bulk items uphill, this is perhaps the hardest phase of a food forest project, but also probably the most vital, as we are laying the foundations for what we hope will be many years of growth to come! I have to give special credit to Denise, who has really spearheaded the design process and has contributed a lot of muscle to boot; and Pastor Walter of St. Elmo United Methodist Church, whose enthusiastic support, personal labor, and contribution of a pick-up truck have all been invaluable. Every bit of help makes a difference- including just telling others about what’s going on. For coming work days we would love to expand our volunteer base, so if you are interested in participating or have an idea of groups that might be interested in volunteering, do let us know- and stay tuned for updates on this and and on our East Lake Library site, as preparation work continues in both places in the months ahead.
