Grow an Edible Forest Garden in Your Yard and Reduce Your Carbon Footprintby Pat Rasmussen, Terra Commons Imagine your yard as an edible forest garden with fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, and a ground cover of perennial vegetables and fruit. Modeled on natural forest function, edible forest gardens are self-sustaining: the trees pump water and nutrients for other plants and companion planting improves growth. The healthy soils and the planted trees and bushes take carbon from the atmosphere and hold it. The gardens are no-till, organic and provide food for families, neighborhoods and towns while increasing the urban forest cover. Food items that travel 2000 miles to the local store are replaced by locally grown food, reducing carbon emissions. Replacing lawns with forest gardens also reduces carbon emissions that result from mowing; one hour using a lawn mower is the same as forty late model cars for an hour on the freeway. It also eliminates pesticide and fertilizer use on lawns, which run off into creeks, rivers, lakes and Puget Sound, threatening salmon and orcas. Planting trees along the south side of your house reduces the need for air-conditioning. When people grow their own food locally in their yard, pressure to convert forests to agriculture is reduced, thereby saving old growth forests that hold a great deal of carbon. Learn what you can do in your yard with an Edible Forest Garden at Olympia Climate Action's next monthly meeting on Monday, March 8 from 7:00-9:00 pm at the MIXX 96 Meeting Room, corner of State and Washington in dowtown Olympia. Pat Rasmussen will give a presentation on the design and layout of trees and shrubs in an edible forest garden, planting trees and shrubs, mushroom inoculation, and the value of fruit trees for holding carbon. There will be time for an extensive question and answer period as well. Bring your own mug to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea along with other refreshments. For more information, contact Barb Scavezze at 360-878-9901 or barb@scavezze.com. This event is jointly sponsored by Olympia Climate Action at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OlyClimateAction and Terra Commons at http://www.terracommons.us
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