About a month ago, I was visiting the Shofuso Japanese house in Fairmount Park with my girlfriend when we stumbled upon a food forest right here in Philadelphia. I’ve read about several Philly Food Forest plantings done by the Philly Orchard Project, but hadn’t seen any yet. They had signs surrounding the site that described the process of installing the different aspects of the system. Well done, Philly Orchard Project! Check it out:
The Philadelphia Orchard Project’s plant sale happened a few weeks ago. They had a free fruit tree giveaway to the first 15 people to arrive, so I got my buddy Miles to come with me and we got two fruit trees! We got a Fuyu Imoto Persimmon and a Reliance Peach tree. I also bought a small Blueberry bush, a Pawpaw seedling, and a strawberry plant with white, extra tasty strawberries. I also got to meet Phil Forsyth for the first time. He’s the guy that started the Philly Orchard Project, definitely a guy that I look up to.
I planted the trees and the shrub at my parents house to start a food forest garden there. I also had a comfrey plant that I got from a friend. My buddy had some planting soil with mycorrhizal fungi, so I used that to surround the roots of the tree. Here’s some photos. Some of them are blurry, sorry!
Our loot from the plant sale and tree giveaway!
Miles was excited for the event.
All the perennials for sale!
Some more plants for sale.
Price List. We made out pretty good getting two fruit trees for free!
The Persimmon Tree we planted.
The Peach Tree we planted.
Pawpaw seedling
This is the area of the yard where I’m planting the forest garden. There are some taller canopy trees, but the Persimmon, Peach, and Blueberry will get plenty of sunlight. The Pawpaw will be a bit shadier when it grows, but it can handle that.
The Peach tree, and a comfrey plant.
Persimmon Tree
Blueberry bush next to a drainage ditch.
Philly Permaculture 