Cultivating a Garden in the Forest

The Beacon Food Forest has edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Fruit and nut trees are on the site?EUR??,,????'?????< Photo: https://beaconfoodforest.weebly.com

A grassy-sloped area just southwest of Jefferson Park in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood is now the Beacon Food Forest.

The goal of Beacon Food Forest https://beaconfoodforest.weebly.com is to ''design, plant and grow an edible urban forest garden that inspires our community to gather together, grow our own food and rehabilitate our local ecosystem.''

The design of this seven-acre site includes an edible arboretum (fruit trees from around the world), a berry patch, a nut grove (sustenance and shade), a community garden (a-patch model where families grow their own food) and an area for kids.

The food forest is just 2.5 miles from downtown Seattle. Harrison Design is the landscape architect for this innovative project.

According to the Beacon Food Forest website, the site's exceptional sun exposure and angle of the slope allows a large variety of plants from multiple climate zones to grow in this forest garden, while producing high food yields with little maintenance.