June 25, 2016
1585
The Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley set roots Thursday with the planting of an American Sycamore tree as the focal point of its future phase expansion into a full-fledged foraging forest.
With the help of Thomas Irwin (R), a summer student with the Huron-Kinloss parks department, the tree was set into the field beyond the garden to grow as a 95-foot high and up to 65-foot wide specimen to stand as an icon of the forage forest.
"The American Sycamore does not bear an edible fruit, but it can draw up polluted water and clean it through its system to provide a liquid that can act like clean water in a survival situation," says Lynne Taylor, executive director of the gardens. "We felt that its unique capability, together with its impressive stature as a focal point to draw our visitors into a future phase in the garden, made it the perfect selection."
Taylor notes that the forage forest will incorporate other canopy trees, understory trees and shrubs, and a variety of shorter and ground cover plants that can be foraged for food.
"The garden will be implanted and then left to naturalize so we can provide foraging workshops in future years but we needed to get this flagship tree planted so it has time to grow into the icon we were looking for," she says.
In the meantime, planting of the 2016 season Body of Health themed gardens is drawing to a close and visitors are always welcome. Each of the garden areas will be planted with annuals that address various body systems.
Self-guided tours will be available and guided tours are available Thursday through Sunday by appointment. Contact ltaylor@bbfg.org.
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