It is sometimes difficult to understand what it means to transform our fragile food system into a something more resilient. It can sound like a foreign language—something that seems a little familiar, but we cannot wrap our heads around it. Well, the best way to learn a foreign language is through immersion. New Pioneer Food Co-op’s emerging edible landscape at their administration office gives people the opportunity to immerse themselves in a more resilient example of food cultivation.

The dappled light, undulating plant heights, and dense ground cover of this landscape mimic a healthy woodland edge ecosystem. The plants will work in harmony to increase soil fertility and attracted birds and beneficial insects will help maintain its health. It will be able to cope with chaotic climate-related stresses and will require little, if any, external fossil fuel or resources or to maintain. In addition, it sequesters carbon and creates habitat for wildlife.

We gain all these benefits because we put the burden onto Mother Nature’s broad shoulders rather than ours. Participants in the workshop were working as a symbiotic and cohesive part of nature, rather than working as a species that is separate from nature. Our energy moves from never-ending weeding, watering, and fertilizing to harvesting, preparing, and preserving the bounty.

In early spring, additional workshops will complete the planting and transplanting of all the plants. The result: currants, gooseberries, chokeberries, blueberries, bush cherries, and perennial greens emerging from a groundcover of strawberries and rhubarb, all growing under the open canopy of apples and paw paws.

Pictures can be seen in the Abundant Landscapes area of the Backyard Abundance website.