Green Oasis on Broadview

Edible Forest Gardening at Green Oasis on Broadview: Growing Alternatives

Green Oasis on Broadview is a small-scale permaculture plot in downtown Toronto.  If you take the time to check it out you will discover a budding ecosystem that is thriving in a sunny patch behind the Loblaws parking lot, spilling into the forested ravine.  We have chosen a couple of different, but very much related and complementary, systems of agriculture to implement there.  The milpa or three sisters of corn, squash, and beans forms the basis of the garden.  In late summer, corn towers above everything, the beans growing up its stalk, and the ground is covered in a thick leafy layer of squash vines.  The second agricultural model that we are nurturing is forest gardening. The beginning phases of our forest garden are visible to the close observer.  A number of native plant species and trees have been planted and ravine has been stabilized to host shade-tolerant species such as ostrich fern and raspberries. 

Green Oasis is meant to be a community incubator and a research base, to show people the possibilities of what can be grown in a small patch of green space in the middle of the city.  We hope that it inspires and educates, and that it can be a place for people to gather, learn, teach, share lunches, and have fun.  We want to be an example of action being taken to broaden and deepen the burgeoning local food movement in Toronto by increasing the umber of people who know how to grow food in the city.

Forest gardening is the creation of perennial polycultures of edible or otherwise usable (fuel, fodder, medicinal) plants whereby each plant contributes to the success of the whole.  That means that forest gardens take a substantial effort to start up but once they are growing, they are self-renewing and need little maintenance and upkeep.  In a forest garden, the ways in which each species interacts with all of the others is taken into account.  Nitrogen-fixing species are planted, for example, to increase soil fertility.  A welcoming environment is created for helpful insects and animals.  Natural processes of forest succession are mimicked so while the forest garden may appear to be disorganized growth (although forest gardens may not necessarily take on this appearance) it is actually a carefully planned interlocking and fluid system. These gardens require that we actively engage with ecosystems, that we pay attention to relationships and processes that are evident in nature, and that where those ecosystems are utilized and managed for food production, that it be done in a non-disruptive and harmonious way.

While traditional European systems of agriculture may have outwardly higher yields, it is a different story when the costs, financial and environmental, of the fertilizers, technologies, and machinery used are factored in.  Forest gardens are designed for local consumption and do not require such high inputs of energy to produce a diversity of food. 

This is not a new idea by any means.  America’s indigenous peoples practiced some forms of agriculture that were so integrated into their natural surroundings that Settlers were unable to identify them as agriculture at all. 

It is important to note that forest gardening is not necessarily a universally applicable form of agriculture. It is just one statement in a long dialogue that must take place in order to explore alternatives and create a diversity of utopias suited to communities’ needs, environments, and social contexts. We feel that the ravine is an ideal spot for a forest garden.  Its natural beauty can be reclaimed and turned into a vibrant ecosystem of food-producing and mutually supportive plants.  Members of the local community can utilize this space to feed themselves and acquire skills that we believe will become more and more useful as we are forced to rely on the land that is available to us to grow food.

The lessons to be learned in this sort of garden are many and invaluable.  Whereas conventional or industrial forms of agriculture view plants as having specific and separate purposes, plants in a forest garden must be seen as having multiple functions.  Trees share expansive, continent-spanning roots systems under the soil.  We intervene by building roads, tunnels, mines, and etcetera.  What if we were to stop intervening and manage the forest’s natural processes to feed ourselves?  We would spare ourselves energy in the long run without needlessly fragmenting the connections that already exist. What if diverse and interconnected human communities held the potential to mutually coexist like the trees and we designed our systems of trade to see the social networks of our communities- our CULTURE- as deeply connected with the way we grow food –AGRICULTURE? What if we had systems of food production and distribution that revealed the social, biological, and economic threads that bind us all?

Again, this doesn’t mean that every garden should be turned into a forest, but just that design should take into account pre-existing habitats and that forest gardens are an incredibly fertile learning environment. 

Nutritional information printed on the backs of the boxes labeled “food” on grocery store shelves is void of the stories about the land and the people who grew the food, about how it traveled to be here, about the impact, economically, politically, and socially, that our consumption of that product has.  We want to contribute to a movement that foments the growth of food with stories that we can be aware of and proud of.  Forest gardening and permaculture are a part of that process, which we have termed “social composting”; by doing and creating we can identify questions, experiment with solutions, and prepare the ground for inclusive social change by hosting public dialogue to enrich communities and food-producing networks.

I am not a gardener, but I am someone who wants to learn about gardening.  For me, Green Oasis holds many interesting research opportunities and the chance to understand how plants function and their significance to communities.  It is a gateway to social networks here in Toronto that are interested in the same things that I am.  It is important to not get so caught up in critiques of existing, mainstream systems that we divert our energy from acting in ways that will create positive change. Green Oasis is a space to put ideas into action and see that growing food in Toronto is practical, rewarding, transformative, and fun. 

Rosy

October 2008