The Community Food Forest Handbook by Catherine Bukowski & John Munsell

Author:Catherine Bukowski & John Munsell [Bukowski, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781603586443
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Published: 2018-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 9.1. A landscape architect may use asset mapping with a community and then apply the knowledge to decide where best to locate a community food forest and pathways connecting important places in the neighborhood. Here, a final rendition shows a community garden area integrated with a food forest and perennial riparian plantings in the lower right corner. Illustration by Will Serge.

A final design is often referred to as a plan view. Landscape architects use a survey or an aerial image of a proposed site as the base and then utilize software and botanical knowledge to layer proposed plants, hardscapes, and other infrastructure over the map at a scale correlated to site parameters. A good design also includes implementation details, such as where to source materials, estimated budget with cost analysis, and instructions for immediate, short-term, and long-term care.

When it comes to community food forests, landscape architecture design should always take into consideration public opinion for increased sustainability of the site. Public design charrettes are a great technique for explaining the concept, collecting opinions, and responding to feedback. This cycle can happen numerous times until an agreed-upon design is finalized or as budgets allow. Due to the scale of community projects, a design team is usually assembled that can inform project design with site and community surveys, as well as assist with policy and code compliance, such as making sure a community food forest’s paths are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Landscape architects give equal attention to the infrastructure needed to facilitate use of the site, such as lighting to allow the area to be safely visited at night. Hardscaping needs such as grading for walkways, platforms for sheds or pavilions, and material selection for pathways and patios can be estimated along with calculating approximate loads of surface water runoff. Rather than producing one detailed site design at the end of the process, there will be a master plan that includes a series of designs that visually represent the relative location of each element on the site as well as different visual perspectives of the project. (See figure 9.1 versus 9.2.) Tree crowns and other vegetation are represented at mature size. Pathways are shown, and their material, style, and color may also be symbolized.

Growing Goodwill Community Garden

Another layer of detail that landscape architects bring to the planning process is determining how a community food forest can connect community at the landscape scale. They are equipped to help communities visualize the design space through illustrations and drawings. In Roanoke, Virginia, Goodwill Industries of the Valley and the Roanoke Community Garden Association worked together to create a community garden on part of Goodwill Industries’ property, which was a vacant field. The location of the garden made fresh food accessible to Roanoke’s Shenandoah West neighborhood, which includes the city’s largest public housing complex. Half of the residents of Shenandoah West live below the poverty line, and food security is an important issue.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.