Kezar Food ForestI. IntroII. Vision/GoalsIII. Site AnalysisIV. Kezar Food Forest DesignV. Methods of ImplementationVI. ManagementVII.Summary

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Golden Gate Park: Kezar Triangle

Golden Gate Park: Kezar Triangle

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Golden Gate Park: Kezar Triangle

Vision & Goals: Overview

We have designed a two-acre food forest for an underutilized area of Golden Gate Park.

The forests and meadows will have the look and feel of a park, while the trees and plants themselves serve multiple functions such as providing fruits, nuts, medicinal plants, teas, berries, leafy greens, edible roots and bulbs.

All the plant guilds are designed into our scheme. We saw that the original Park owed its successes to the many Permaculture Principles that its’ founders applied.

We will show you these innovations used particularly by William Hammond Hall, the designer and first superintendent of the Park.

Vision & Goals: Historical Precedence

Our support for the vision of the Park as a valuable resource is also historical. During times of financial depression and the 1906 earthquake and fire, the Park was an invaluable resource to the people of San Francisco.

Creative schemes were used to hire the unemployed who built the bridges and roads and plant trees in the Park. Meadows became tent cities. Children attended outside schools and tended the many vegetable gardens.

History: Tent Cities

Vision & Goals: Building Community

Today it is estimated that 1,500 people live within the park. The City’s lack of resources for the homeless and mentally ill are putting a huge strain on the Park.

We see our sample food forest not as a way to attract more homeless and unemployed but as a way for more citizens to get involved in creative solutions that could ease and eliminate this poverty and lack of care.

To such an end, we have suggested a mobile produce market and food exchanges. Our experimental model could be applied to many other places in the Park as well as empty lots in neighborhoods and smaller parks in the City.

Resource: Homeless in the Park

Site for Farmer’s Market Off Stanyan

Vision & Goals: Wildlife Habitats

Our choice of a food forest is also a way to restore wildlife. Food and habitats will attract birds, bats, small rodents, gopher snakes (right now gophers have a monopoly), butterflies, and bees.

Wildlife corridors are becoming recognized more and more as valuable resources to all communities.

Vision & Goals: Wildlife Habitats

Vision & Goals: Utilize PermaculturePrinciples to Lower Costs & Reduce Maintenance

We have designed a forest garden that will develop over time; from pioneer plant communities to more diverse and stable communities.

By mimicking complex forest ecosystems, we learn how to rebuild self-maintaining landscapes. Wild ecosystems contain webs of cooperation and interdependence.

The goal of forest garden design is to generate such self-maintaining, networked ecosystems.

Dogs Street Noise Shortcut for pedestrians Recreational use Existing Vegetation

Site Analysis: Sector Map

Site Analysis: Sector Map Low Organic Matter Sandy Soil Sun Water Community/Political

Sectors: Windbreak to the NW

Sectors: Native Plant Nursery

Site Analysis: Zone Map

History: Succession Planting

History: William Hammond Hall

History: Tent Cities

History: Golden Gate Park Then

Kezar Food Forest: A City Park with Multiple Functions

Kezar Stadium - Then

Olive/Fruit Tree Guild

Olive/Fruit Tree Guild

Olive/Fruit Tree Guild

Function: Produce food, herbs, dynamic accumulators

Chop and drop the understory plants to create a walkable space under tree during olive harvest.

Understory: • Fava beans- could be cut down in spring• Comfrey- dies down in winter• Dandelions• Clovers- N fixer• Borage- herb, dies down in summer• Oregano- can be harvested in spring• Lemon verbena• Purslane• Daffodils

Olive/Fruit Tree Guild

Healing Labyrinth

Healing Labyrinth

Function: Produce herbs, medicinals, meditation, sacred space Plants:

• Rosemary• Mint• Chamomile• Thyme• Sage• Lavender

Healing Labyrinth

Hedgerow

Hedgerow

Hedgerow

Hedgerow

Function: Barrier from sound/wind/dogs, habitat, and bird food

Plants: • Plum Trees• Hawthorne Trees• Crabapple• Elderberry• Hollyleaf Cherry• Honeysuckle• Climbing Roses• Dutchman’s Pipe• Quince• Herbs

Hedgerow

Central Meadow & Wetland Area

Function: Habitat for birds, space for people activity Sheep Mow Meadow Plants:

• Yarrow • Poppies• Seed Wild Flowers• Meadow grasses w/ wild flowers• Tule Marsh• Cattail• Clover• Buckwheat

Central Meadow & Wetland Area

Oak and Native Grass Guild

Oak and Native Grass Guild

Function: Windbreak, Bird Cover, Habitat, Insectary Oak, Buckeye, Vine Maple, Toyon Plants:

• Seaside Daisy• Sticky Monkey Flower (Mimulus)• Artemesia• Elderberries• Ceanothus• Mimulus• Wild Currants • Gooseberries• Lemonade Berry• Coffee Berry• Douglas Iris• Lupine• Yerba Buena

Oak and Native Grass Guild

Fig Grove

Fig Grove

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Function: Picnic Area, Food, Shelter Plants:

• Bracken Fern• Violas• Oregon grape

Fig Grove

Berry Border

Function: Protect park from dogs, barrier from cars, food

Plum, Apple, Pear, Loquat Trees Plants:

• Comfrey• Fava beans• Nasturtium• Olallieberry• Thornless Blackberry• Thimbleberry

Berry Border

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

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Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Function: Educational Area, Experimental Area

Plants: • Old Roses (for oils, rosehips) • Lavenders• Lemons• Limes• Kumquats• Seasonal Veggies/Herbs

Outdoor Classroom Area & Pond

Method of Succession: Nuclei That Merge

Method of Succession: Soil Building

Method of Succession: Mid-Succession

Method of Succession: Mature Forest

Method of Succession: Mature Forest

Method of Succession: Species Niche

Forest Management: Coppice

Efforts in the Park have already begun…

Other Resources

References

Suddenly San Francisco: The Early Years. by Charles Lockwood.

The Making of Golden Gate Park, The Early Years: 1865 – 1906 by Raymond H. Clary, c. 1980, A California Living Book

The Making of Golden Gate Park, The Growing Years: 1906 – 1950. Raymond H. Clary, c 1987, Don’t Call It Frisco Press

Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, by Bill Mollison, c. 1988

Edible Forest Gardens, Vol. 1. By Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier, c. 2005, Chelsea Green Pub.

Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible landscape. By Robert Hart, C. 1991

Pacific Coast Trees. By McMinn & Maino, c. 1935 Univ. of California Press

Sacred Trees, Nathaniel Altman, Sierra Club Books

Thanks to everyone who helped and inspired us…

“Start small(ish) and establish a pattern that could be rolled out when success is proven and learnings integrated.”…Kevin Bayuk

Special thanks to Kevin Bayuk and the SF Permaculture Guild