The “Tree Streets Food Forest” visioning day and tree planting, lead by “Build It Up East Tennessee”  representative Tyler Malone, was held on Saturday 1 March 14 at the corner of Buffalo and Maple Streets.

The visioning session featured “sheet mulching” which is a process that occurs next to each tree and will build topsoil at a quick rate.  

Another topic, guild building, was discussed:   an “apple guild” is a group of plants, when in proximity, work symbiotically and thrive.  

Walnut-tolerate plants – indigenous and therefore able to leverage  the toxins thrown off by the walnuts – are listed in the pictures below;  these plants may be donated or exchanged with other members in order to build our space.

Two apples and a paw paw were planted; a pruning and grafting demonstration closed the event.

First United Methodist Church of Johnson City is proud to donate the land for this project, the first edible park in Johnson City, which will complement our monthly food pantry distribution which serves the Tree Streets and beyond.

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From Tyler Malone, Build It Up! East TN:

Hey everyone! What a great workday we had yesterday! If you didn't see the pictures, you can check them out on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/treestreetsfoodforest). We also had a little spot on the 6:00 news which was nicel! We planted the Arkansas Black apple, Liberty Red apple, and the three Pawpaw trees, Lexy led a pruning demo, we took soil samples, and we made a major cut on one of the big walnut trees in preparation to graft some other walnut varieties on it, like English Walnut and Butternut. Attached is a picture of the chalkboard after our visioning session.

Our next park party workday will be March 16th from 1:00-3:00 pm. We'll be sheet mulching around the trees (link for more info), building hugelkultur berms and swales (link for more info), making stairs for the hill, and, if we have enough people, we might get started on the protective wood structure that will go around the cob oven. This time we will bring some food! 

Contrary to what I said on facebook, the kids' tree sign painting station will be in April. That was my fault. Which brings me to a question Andrea had, who offered to lead that activity: would people be okay with moving the April workday to the 13th - a Sunday - at the same time, 1:00-3:00? She was hoping to bring families from the University School where she teaches, but the school will be hosting a big event on Saturday the 12th and so she suggested we move the date. Please let me know if April 13th will work for you!

Other Items of Note

- Attached is a google drive document that lists the plants we're looking to plant at the food forest (especially those listed under the 'traditional apple guild' category). If you have any of these you can propagate and donate, or know someone who might, please let me know!

- Lyn has offered to help coordinate a plant swap in conjunction with the Tree Streets Garden Project! Hopefully we'll be able to source some of the plants we're looking for at this. If you would like to help Lyn out with this, please get in touch with her: lgovette@charter.net

- Does anyone have access to hardwood mulch? Ideally we would have composted hardwood mulch around all of our trees right now. Tipton-Haynes Historic Site has a little they said we can take, and I may manage to get some for free from the city, but I'm not sure on that.

- Yancy, Ben, Joe, and I will be working together to gather logs for our hugelkultur beds. If you have a truck and trailer and want to join us, or would want to bring some to the food forest on your own, let me know and I can tell you where to drop them off.

- Tony and I will be making plans to build stairs for the side hill. I've found a source for naturally rot-resistant Black Locust logs that we can use to do that.

- We decided we do want to plant a sunflower hedge along Buffalo St. Between the seeds Downtown Farming has donated, and the other sunflower seeds I have in the seed lending library, we should have more than enough to do this.

- There was a discussion about setting up a table at Blue Plum and at ETSU on Earth Day. From what I remember, Joe Delahanty, and maybe Ben Schaller, were interested in making this happen. This would be a great way to share the vision and get more people involved.

- It was mentioned that if we built a pond, that might mean we'd have to get insurance for it. So, instead, we will be making a wetlands area at the base of the downspouts from the building and parking lot. If anyone can do some research on plants that remove toxins from runoff water that could be planted in that area, that would be really helpful.

I think that's enough for now! Thanks again everyone!!!

Taylor Malone
Program Leader, Build It Up! East TN
615-945-7164