Green Light’s Teaching Edible Garden
Last summer (2014), we introduced the concept of permaculture, a farming philosophy that works with, rather then against nature. If you missed the explanation and discussion of permaculture, please check it out here.
Now that you’re caught up on the permaculture basics, we have some very exciting permaculture news of our own. What was once an empty lot on Cambronne Street has become Green Light’s first permaculture garden and Edible Teaching Garden Space.
In early spring of 2014, we decided to lease a property from the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) with the hope of transitioning the space from empty lot to permaculture garden. We’ve had a lot of help and support along the way!
To start, we acquired large amounts of wood mulch through donations from local tree trimmers. Once the mulch was secured, we began the sheet mulching process to build soil and kill weeds organically with help from our amazing volunteers. (For a detailed explanation of sheet mulching, click here).
Once the sheet mulching process was in full swing, Entergy Foundation came in with funding and volunteers to build 4 raised garden beds. By the middle of last summer, our once empty lot was beginning to look and feel like the permaculture sanctuary we had envisioned. Last “winter”, Rebuilding Together New Orleans helped us to build a fence to protect some of our more valuable supplies, while still providing a nice space for our neighbors to pick herbs and produce from our garden. CalStar Products built an herb spiral garden with their very own environmentally friendly bricks to add to our space this past spring 2015. This summer, AmeriCorps member, Tony, helped us build a pyramid garden. We’ve had many many incredible interns and volunteers along the way supporting this process.
Although the site is always a work progress. Executive Director, Andreas Hoffmann, and Garden Coordinator, Megan Bayha, are excited to utilize their Permaculture Design education! Here are some pictures of our process and garden here! Currently, we have several garden beds growing lots of summer produce–cucumber, basil, watermelon, eggplant, tomatoes, and more.
The site is specifically a teaching space for the Green Light gardeners to learn about growing their own food organically. It is also a soil preparation site to support our Backyard Vegetable Garden Program. We’ve built over 400 gardens and we have over 300 people on the wait list (as of summer 2015)! We have our work cut out for us.
Want to get involved? You can become a Monthly Sustaining Member–just $10(or more) a month helps to support backyard vegetable gardens in New Orleans. You can also volunteer to make it directly happen!