[Scpg] new food forest project in Santa Barbara - p.s.

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

Garden of Eden - Mesa church plans to turn  small plot of land into 
community bounty  
By TED MILLS, SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS  CORRESPONDENT

        Randy Saake, deacon at  Holy Cross Catholic Church, admires a 
freshly planted tree on Sunday  at Mesa Harmony Garden, off Meigs Road, which 
will help feed those  in need in the community.
NIK BLASKOVICH / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS    

      Happy to help out,  Ellamae McKinney, 3, digs a hole where a tree 
will be planted at  Mesa Harmony Garden.   

      Local volunteer Margie  Bushman hauls a wheelbarrow full of mulch 
across the garden.    

      At top, Volunteers  from the church and community turned out Sunday 
to dig holes, haul  mulch and plant trees at Mesa Harmony Garden.
Randy Saake  backfills around a tree as Larry Saltzman, member of the  
Permaculture Guild of Santa Barbara, lays the roots out.    

December 11, 2010 5:49 PM 
Most people drive past the beginnings of the Mesa Harmony Garden on their 
way  down or up Meigs Road, either on their way to Santa Barbara or the Mesa. 
A small  patch of land behind the Taco Bell parking lot and before the 
turnoff onto  Dolores Drive, it is set to become several things: a way to feed 
those in need,  an exciting example of permaculture and a gift from a local 
church to the Mesa  community  
The garden, worked by parishioners of Holy Cross Catholic Church, 
neighbors,  Santa Barbara City College students and volunteers, will provide food for 
the  homeless and needy from a selection of more than 300 trees, along with 
other  types of fruits and vegetables, say supporters. And all on less than 
an acre.  
Randy Saake has been an ordained deacon at Holy Cross for three years and a 
 member for 14 years. The half-acre of land has been sitting there vacant 
for the  entire 50 years of the church's existence, he says.  
The church's Father Ludo DeClippel had been mulling over what to do with 
the  land for a long time. Five years ago, he decided to finally do something 
about  it and sent out a letter to parishioners asking for ideas. The ideas 
came back:  a garden, meditation grounds and more. However, everything 
looked like it might  cost too much money, so the idea fell through the cracks.  
About five years ago, City College approached with the idea of a community  
garden, where vegetables and fruit would grow, similar to other gardens on 
the  Eastside and Westside. The parishioners ran with the idea and began on 
a small  strip of land nearby, closer to the parking lot, which was more 
manageable. For  the parishioners, many of whom live in apartments with no 
land, this was a  chance to grow their own food. Twenty-two plots wound up in 
the sliver of land,  and for two seasons, it has been bountiful.  
Then City College returned for a further appeal to the parishioners: Would  
they be interested in developing the larger plot of land? The college 
introduced  them to Larry Saltzman, member of the Permaculture Guild of Santa 
Barbara who  takes part in several similar projects around town.  
Once Thomas Curry, regional bishop of Santa Barbara, gave his blessing in  
January, and the church applied for a nonprofit status for the garden, the  
garden set up its board of directors, with Josh Kane, a member of the Mesa  
business community, as president, Renatte Franquet as vice president, and 
Mr.  Saake as treasurer.  
The Mesa garden is its own entity, but its mission statement fits right in  
with the good deeds of the church. All food will be donated to Foodbank of 
Santa  Barbara County, which kick-started the garden with a recent donation 
of 78 fruit  trees. "We planned on giving them the fruit anyway," Mr. Saake 
says, "so it was  a win-win situation."  
As of Sunday, parishioners and volunteers began to plant those trees. The  
plan, after initial planting and irrigation, is to end with a 
self-sustainable  food forest. No municipal water or manpower will be needed, except for  
maintenance and harvesting.  
"Our goal is to have 300 (trees) planted in this teeny plot of land," Mr.  
Saake says. "I find that hard to believe, but the guys in the know say it's  
possible."  
Permaculturists -- the people in the know -- suggest a seven-layer garden, 
in  which all seven kinds of plant life interact with each other. It's the 
complete  opposite of the monoculture seen in farmland, where one type of 
plant gets its  own field.  
The top layer belongs to canopy trees, large fruit and nut trees that 
provide  shade for the rest of the forest. The second layer is made of smaller 
trees,  dwarf fruit trees, all producing fruit such as citrus and peaches. 
Below that is  the shrub layer, producing berries and currants. After that 
comes the layers  most people associate with a garden: herbaceous plants such as 
beets and  lettuce; root vegetables like potatoes and carrots; and then 
groundcover, which  can produce strawberries and more. The final layer is the 
vertical creepers:  vines and such, producing beans, melons, squash and more. 
 
"The plants survive off each other and perpetuate each other's growth," 
says  Mr. Saake.  
So far, the list of trees includes five varieties of peach, two kinds of  
plum, nectarines and apricots. Add to that several varieties of apple and 
pear.  Down in the corner they plan to have bananas, Mr. Saake adds.  
Bananas on the Mesa? Really?  
Larry Saltzman, who has been advising the garden, plans to plant banana 
trees  in a circle, with a little compost in the middle. "They're 
nutrient-hungry, so  they live off that," Mr. Saake explains. That's also the reason the 
bananas get  planted at the bottom of the hill. Terracing helps the flow of 
water and  nutrients.  
Parishioners have been getting a quick education in permaculture, but so 
have  City College students. Jan Cross, who has gone back to college after 
decades in  the corporate world, came as part of a class in the environmental 
studies  program -- a semester-long project in sustainability, taught by Adam 
Green --  where Mesa Harmony Garden was one of several options.  
"Since I moved here several years ago, I realized we have a special  
environment that allows certain things to grow together," Ms. Cross says. "The  
environmental stuff is what is going to make a difference to us in the future. 
 And it allows all kinds of people to work together toward a goal. It 
creates  more harmony, food, and a better environment."  
"She's the real motivator in the group," says Mr. Saake of Ms. Cross. "She  
brings out the help."  
The Mesa doesn't get too warm or cold, according to Mr. Saltzman, which 
makes  it ideal for apples, stone fruit and, believe it or not, papayas and 
mangoes.  "They like the additional moisture. You don't get a winter freeze on 
the Mesa,"  he told the News-Press.  
"It's challenging, too; you really have to work with the peaches. It's not  
the perfect place to grow, but you can work there. But if we make mistakes, 
we  can rectify them."  
When they started, the earth was not forgiving. The clay ground, used in  
adobe bricks, was hard. They had to use picks on it. Then the rains came. 
"We've  been digging deeper and it's still hard," said Ms. Cross. But the 
permaculture  people know the right nitrogen blend and fungal growth to get the 
soil aerated.  "We're talking about starting with concrete here."  
To the untrained eye, such successful gardens look like chaos, but to the  
environmental scientist and permaculturalist, these forest gardens are a 
complex  system. Scientists now theorize that the rainforest in South America 
was not  wild but a staggeringly huge forest garden planted and tended by the 
Mayan  civilization. It was just not a garden to the eyes of the European 
explorers who  landed there.  
Mr. Saltzman has tended his own miniature version of a food forest for 18  
years at his Samarkand home. He brought the students and parishioners out to 
his  quarter of an acre, which has more than 80 trees. "It was incredible 
to see,"  says Mr. Saake. "We got very excited about it."  
"Take a tree that produces 25 pounds of fruit and multiply that by 100 and  
you see how that can quickly become a lot," Mr. Saltzman says. "We're 
pushing  1,000 pounds of fruit on that property."  
Mr. Saltzman adds that adding chicken, ducks or bees increases diversity 
and  nutrients.  
"A food forest is the sweetest thing you've ever seen," says an 
enthusiastic  Ms. Cross. "If you do a good job, you don't have to redo it all the time. 
It  makes the ground, the insects, the birds, and the people happy. It's 
really a  harmonious thing."  
Those interested in the garden can go to mesaharmonygarden.org for more  
information, including a map of the area and a project plan. Organizers are  
still looking for donations, volunteers and equipment.  
"We are being good stewards of the earth," says Mr. Saake, explaining why 
the  church is following this gardening path. "God gifted us the earth to 
look  after."



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