Roberts Creek Food Micro-Forest Garden
This hearty native perennial foodscape fulfills beauty and ecological function while addressing pressing issues around food security for our uniquely conscious rainforest village. Celebrating the food and culture of the Coastal First Peoples, it reflects a diversity of relationships between plants, animals and people. This is part of a Roberts Creek Village Repair initiative to create place for people to gather, learn, share and help build a relocalized and resilient community future.
As people walk, petal or drive down the road into the Village Center they will enter into beautiful gardens. Following the red brick path next to Heart of the Creek takes people and pets through shades of seasonal color and delicious foodstuffs they can eat as they pass by. Signage will help people learn about the plants, their functions and edibility as well as their place within the Cultures of the Land.
The forest garden dapples the transition from bustling village center to the cement road and its traffic. On the other side of the red brick path is the Heart Gardens plant community of 250 species of perennial food including 150 species of native perennials used traditionally as food-medicine plants.
Featured in this Food Micro-Forest are keystone food producing native trees which reflect their cousins across the street (also crab apples and hazelnuts). Under the trees are sentinel plants to break up the soil and prevent crowding from other plants while attracting birds, bees and butterflies. Between the trees are native berry bushes feeding people and attracting birds, below which is an edible groundcover as a living mulch and beneficial insect attractor. This is the start of the guild and its main components, other small herbacious level plants will be added later to enhance diversity and ecological function.
Seasonal Interest
Winter : January, February, March
Growth : Hazelnut Catkins, Sweet Gale
Berries : Bearberries
Greenery and Foliage
Spring : April May June
Flowers : Crab Apples, Hazelnuts, Soopolallie, Sweet Gale, Serviceberry, Strawberries, April Black Lily, May Chocolate Lily, June Camas
Harvests : Hazel Nuts
Summer : July, August, September
Flowers : Labrador Tea, Kinnickinnick, Nodding Onion, Camas, July Tiger Lily,
Harvests : Crab Apples, Buffalo Berries, Serviceberries, Strawberries
Autumn : October, November, December
Flowers : deciduous leaves provide the color
Harvests : Dogwood Berries, Bearberries
Folliage : Serviceberry changes colors.
Forest Garden Guild
Edibility: Fruit, Berries, Nuts, Oil, Leaves, Roots, Starch, Inulin, Vitamin C, Teas
Traditional Ethnobotany :
Medicines for heart complaints, tooth pain, intestinal disorders, eyes, organs and skin, digestion, and blood pressure. Includes female tonic, and healers of stomachic issues, diarrhea, dysentry, kidney stones, respiration, colds, coughs and fevers. Produces a smoking blend tobacco substitute and series of vitalizing teas.
Tool making: Hard wood for tools like bows, tool handles, pegs and fish hooks, digging sticks, cooking and drying racks, building poles, and arrows. There is pliable materials for basketry, as well as rope and string. The guild also provides wax for burning, essential oil perfume, and insect repellants. Blue, Red and Yellow Dye is traditionally made from plants in this community.
Beneficial Ecological Function:
Pollenators, nitrogen fixers, living mulch, sentinel plants, insectary plants, beneficial animal and insect attractors, native habitat, repels pests and rodents, kills mosquitos and fleas.
food for : red squirrels, chipmunks, birds, bees, butterflies, honeybees
attracts birds : Hummingbirds, song birds, grouse, waxwings, sapsuckers, woodpeckers, towhees, sparrows, grosbeaks, robins and countless others.
Shrubs
Malus Fusca - Pacific Crab Apple
Bloom Time: (Spring) May June
Edibility: Keystone plant of the Coastal First Peoples. Apples are easy to store for long periods of time.
Medicine: Medicine for the eyes, organs and skin.
Tool making: Hard wood for tools like bows, handles, pegs and fish hooks.
Beneficial Ecological Function: Universal Pollenator for Apples. Attracts beneficial insects. Food for birds.
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: hearty and tolerant
Sun : Sun - Part Shade
Corylus Cornuta - Beaked Hazelnut
Bloom Time: Catkins (Winter) February-March Flowers (Spring) April-May
Edibility: Nutritious seeds store for a year. The only native plant source for nuts and oil here on the coast.
Traditional Medicine: heart complaints, tooth pain and intestinal disorders.
Tool making: Basketry, arrows, blue dye, rope and string.
Beneficial Ecological Function: Nuts are eaten by native squirrels and birds.
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: hearty and tolerant
Sun : semi-shade to sun
Cornus Sericea - Creek Dogwood
Bloom Time: Flowers (Summer) May to July Berries (Autumn) October
Edibility: Berries eaten by interior peoples but not preferred.
Traditional Medicine: Bark extract was used for treating coughs and fevers, and tea brewed from roots and stems was used to prevent and treat malaria. A tonic plant. Some tribes smoked the inner layers of the bark as a tobacco substitute.
Tool making: Source of red dyes. Fibre for rope and basketry. Cooking and drying racks.
Beneficial Ecological Function: Berries are a preferred food and nesting site of many songbirds, particularly during fall migration. Flowers are an important source of pollen for honey bees. Food for red squirrels and chipmunks.
Water : Prefers moist conditions.
Soil: Commonly occurs on moist, organic soils, but grows in a wide range of soil types.
Sun : Sun and Shade tolerant.
Bushes
Shepherdia Canadensis - Soopolallie
Bloom Time: Flowers (Spring) April May Fruit (Summer) July August
Edibility: Treasured fruit of the Coastal First Peoples.
Traditional Medicine: Eyes, skin, digestion, blood pressure.
Tool making: Hair dye
Beneficial Ecological Function: Nitrogren Fixation. Attracts bees, butterflies and birds.
Water: Drought tolerant
Soil: Soil tolerant
Sun : Sun or Shade
Myrica gale - Sweet Gale
Bloom Time: (Winter-Spring) March - May
Edibility: Fruit and Herbal Leaves for teas or soups.
Traditional Medicine:
Tool making: Wax for burning, yellow dye, essential oil perfume
Beneficial Ecological Function: Nitrogen Fixing and wildlife attracting. Repels insect pests. Said to be used by sasquatches.
Water: likes moist
Soil: Soil tolerant
Sun : Semi-Shade or Sun
Ledum groenlandicum - Labrador Tea
Bloom Time: (Summer) July August
Edibility: vitalizing tea.
Traditional Medicine: skin and organ helper, colds and sore throats
Tool making: Insecticide and dye plant.
Beneficial Ecological Function: Pollen for bees. Repels insect pests and mice. Kills mosquitos and fleas.
Water: likes Moist
Soil: Soil tolerant, loves acidity.
Sun : Shade or semi-shade
Serviceberry - Amelanchier alnifolia
Bloom Time: Flowers (Summer) April and May Foliage (Autumn)
Edibility: berries were an important plant food used by the First Peoples. Pemmican was made by pounding dried service berries with dried meat.
Traditional Medicine: stomachic, fevers, flue
Tool making: Arrow shafts, digging sticks and building poles were made from the hard, straight-grained wood. Slat armor and shield.
Beneficial Ecological Function: Numerous birds eat the fleshy fruits and find shelter among the branches. This species is able to re-sprout after fire. A great source of pollen and nectar for bees and butterflies. Rope and tool handles.
Water: likes moist
Soil: Occurs on a variety of well- drained soils.
Sun : Semi-shade or sun.
Ground Cover
Coastal Strawberry - Fragaria Chiloensis
Bloom Time: Flower (Spring) April May Fruit (Summer) June July
Edibility: Berries and leaf tea
Traditional Medicine: female tonic, burns, diarrhea
Tool making: woven headbands
Beneficial Ecological Function: living mulch, attracts butterflies, bees and birds
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Woodland Strawberry - Fragaria Virginiana
Bloom Time: Flower (Spring) April May Fruit (Summer) June July
Edibility: Berries and leaf tea high in vitamin c
Traditional Medicine: female tonic, burns, diarrhea
Tool making: fruits help clean teeth
Beneficial Ecological Function: living mulch, attracts butterflies and bees
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Mountain Strawberry - Fragaria Vesca
Bloom Time: Flower (Spring) April May Fruit (Summer) June July
Edibility: Berries and leaf tea
Traditional Medicine: dysentry
Tool making: woven headbands
Beneficial Ecological Function: living mulch, attracts butterflies and bees
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Kinnickinnick - Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi (located just under dogwood)
Bloom Time: May to June
Edibility: Fruit
Traditional Medicine: The dried leaves were smoked as a tobacco substitute by combining dried leaves with the dried inner-bark of red osier dog wood. urinary infections, mouth wash.
Tool making: Dye, waterproofing.
Beneficial Ecological Function: The berries are eaten by various birds.
Water: Grows in areas with 8-45 inches of annual precipitation.
Soil: Occurs on a variety of soil types including sandy, acidic, and well- drained to excessively-drained soils.
Sun : Full Shade and Semi-Shade or sun.
Root :
Allium cernuum - Nodding Onion
Bloom Time: (Summer) June July
Edibility: flowers, leaves, roots, contains inulin
Traditional Medicine: kidney stones, respiration, colds, sore throats
Tool making:
Beneficial Ecological Function: attracts hummingbirds, bees and butterfies, repels insect and rodent pests, insect repellant for humans, sentinel plants to prevent weed crowding
Water: drought tolerant
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : part sun to sun
Camassia quamash - Common Camas
Bloom Time: (Summer) May June
Edibility: nutritious tuber, contains inulin
Traditional Medicine: Childbirth
Beneficial Ecological Function: feeds bees and attracts butterflies, sentinel plants to prevent weed crowding
Water: likes moist
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Fritillaria camchatcensis - Black Lily
Bloom Time: (Spring) May
Edibility: bulb eaten as a Staple Food or used to make flour
Beneficial Ecological Function: sentinel plants to prevent weed crowding
Water: likes moist
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Fritillaria lanceolata - Chocolate Lily
Bloom Time: (Spring) April May
Edibility: high starch bulb was a staple food for Coastal First Peoples
Beneficial Ecological Function: sentinel plants to prevent weed crowding
Water: likes moist
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade
Lilium columbianum - Tiger Lily
Bloom Time: (Summer) July August
Edibility: bulb is staple food for first peoples
Beneficial Ecological Function: attracts birds, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, sentinel plants to prevent weed crowding
Water: likes moist
Soil: soil tolerant
Sun : sun or shade