Saturday and Sunday meetings

[Philip Small]

Saturday 10:00 AM we will meet as usual at the park. We will take a look at how the garden beds are faring, perhaps harvest tansy to spread between the beds. We will put up the new signs that Robynn made for us, presented yesterday at the garden tour. Robynn: Much appreciated! 

We will discuss moving compost from a nearby residence, and arranging for wood chips from Spirit Pruners. We will also talk about the logistics of establishing food forest supportive plants around the perimeter of the garden, and looking for a volunteer to tend to their care and watering.

Sunday at 1:00 PM we will meet at the Spokane Woman's Club at 9th and Walnut, enter from the Green Door on Walnut, go down into the Clubroom. In addition to the above, we will talk about the Susie Food Forest concept, which Susie Forest originator Nancy MacKerrow and our Cliff Cannon neighborhood council supports.

One aspect I would like to explore is the timeline involved in planning and establishing the Beacon Food Forest, and the 6th Ward Garden Park, the two projects most similar to ours. These two projects are also on public city property. They similarly have park rules, unrestricted public access, and multiple use stakeholders to consider.

For Polly Judd Park's Food Forest to proceed along similar lines we would have a stakeholder process to develop how best to fit this into the community, and we would engage in a permaculturally-informed design process. Beacon's was initially a Permaculture Design Certificate class project, which was further developed by the students. 6th Ward's process centered on a 1 week design charrette led by David Jacke, following a stakeholder process led by Inside Edge Design, a permaculture sdesign group.

My default track, as project igniter, is to lay the groundwork needed to proceed with stakeholder engagement and the design process. Accordingly, I am going to establish Friends of Polly Judd Park as a 501(c)3, and I am doing what I can to get the word out, and coalesce an active core group around the community garden, our resource to draw upon for establishing and caring for the food forest portion.

Not comparable to Polly Judd Park Food Forest is the City of Vancouver, WA's public orchards, because Polly Judd Park's orchard needs to be planted. 

Folks point to Spokane's Whitworth Food Forest as comparable, but I was not involved with them in the ways I have been with Beacon and 6th Ward. 

I don't know if Whitworth bypassed the community engagement and planning processes, and whether it allows for unrestricted public access (affects the design). If someone here could make contact with Whitworth and find out and also draw them into the food forest conversation here, I would be most grateful.

That's what I want to talk about on Sunday, but I am sure there is more!

Phil