Jen’s Ypsilanti Urban Food Forest

Anishnabeg Country, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

The Brief

Support the making of an abundant, productive food forest sanctuary in the middle of a suburb.

Jen came to us wanting not an installation – but mentoring and design support. Determined and focused, she wanted guidance on how to transform her small urban house lot into a food forest with meeting spaces for socialising and garden enjoyment. This involved co-creating the overall design, mentoring her more intensely in the beginning then less so in the following years, and supplying some edible and pollinator trees and shrubs.

Set in a progressive and changing neighborhood of Ypsilanti, MI, USA, this project was intended as a kind of beautiful community education - Permaculture and food forest garden. Jen’s aim was to build a garden sanctuary that she can always come home to no matter where the rest of her life takes her. She is happy to put in the work to develop resilient diversified ecosystems for her, her son, the more-than-human, and all future inhabitants of this land.

Challenges

• Suburban context 
• Invasive weeds
• Modest budget & resources 
• Township ordinances

Design & Implementation

This project involved our standard process: initial consult, collecting context, a collaborative design session, and then a draft design presentation for feedback. We then incorporated that feedback into a final design and report. Often between the draft design and final report the client or our crews can get started on a very clear first step or phase of the project. In this case it was getting heaps of cardboard and wood chips to start smothering the existing grass and bare soil patches. 

After an approved design, we moved on to laying out the paths and picking the first tree and shrub plantings. With each planting compost, azomite (rock dust) and Plant Tone or chicken manure were added to the designated garden beds. It was great to see Jen, her son, friends, family and neighbours come together to bring this garden to life. Especially the big working bees when the pergola and raised garden beds were installed. 

Each year the garden takes on more vigor, color, and an abundance of things to harvest. From the annual veggies and herbs to the perennial berries, greens and soon to be hazelnut harvest. The pollinator gardens in the front have done the trick of being a bold friendly statement at the entrance - inviting people in. This small urban lot is now a treasure in the neighborhood and a place that many of Jen’s friends and family love to enjoy throughout the year.

Ideas in Action

• Mentoring 
• Aesthetics 
• Food forest and heritage

• Paths & meeting spaces
• Place as sanctuary
• Permaculture in suburbia
• Regenerative approach

Outcomes

4 years later and this is an impressive place - very much in alignment with Jen’s vision! And it’s public with frontage facing the street. Paths invite you into sitting spaces, curving paths meandering the lot, shade trees and screen plantings. And there’s abundant food to harvest and forage.

“It’s the overall design of property that I love best.”

Jen Waley

Property Owner

Jen's Ypsilanti Urban Food Forest

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