New Moon Update from Help Yourself
     The season of gratitude is upon us! We, corporeal beings all, owe the existance of our earthly bodies to those other beings we eat. If you've enjoyed the blessing of eating food once or more in your life, consider paying it forward by planting a public fruit tree, here on Earth!
      Meanwhile, the winter solstice is fast approaching, and gentle fall rains offer relief to the dry ground, it's a nice time to reflect back on a busy - and parched - growing season. Do you live and eat in the Pioneer Valley? This #GivingTuesday "plant your money where your mouth" is  (locally), and invest in our shared future! Plant a public fruit tree today!   

 A few weeks ago I was visiting some old friends who run the horse powered Abode Farm CSA in New Lebanon NY. One of them works part time at near-by Micosta Enterprises, a diverse berry farm growing all manner of uncommon fruit -  cornelian cherry, hardy kiwi, seaberry, currents, aronia, blueberry, gooseberry, quince and more for wholesale and processing into nutrient dense & tasty syrups and extracts. He mentioned that they'd be pulling out a whole long row of black currants to make room for blueberries for some economic reason or another. The whole row (50 or more) currants would be composted!

Inspired, and looking for an excuse to return, at the appropriate day, a few of us HYS volunteers returned in a 15' UHaul. Over a long, sunny afternoon we dug up 50+ black currants - 'Ben Sarek', 'Titania', and other varieties, and mulched them in on a tarp in the truck. We also scored a bunch of red currants, gooseberries and potted apples and trees that needed homes. We schlepped these back to northampton, where we soaked them and mulched them again. Loaded with fruit, close to midsummer, it was the worst time of year to transplant them, but it was then or never. After harvesting some berries and pruning them back by 50%, I think they will do OK!

These got ALL planted out over the next few days, along the Help Yourself plantings on the Manhan Rail Trail (b/t Conz and Pleasant St., and across Old S St. from Soo-ra Restaurant), at the Hampshire Council of Governments lawn, and heeled in elsewhere. Many of these bushes were divided 2 or 3 times, so all told, 75 currant bushes were put in at public plantings in the area, which will, of course, yield countless cuttings and berries over the coming years.

If you've been hoping to connect with the Help Yourself project, either by helping as a tree steward, helping on planting or work days, donating, or planting on your lawn, there's no better time than now! Meanwhile, happy mulberry picking!

On June 11th, HYS volunteers joined faculty and over 70 students at Hampshire Regional HS in Westhampton to plant 75 perennials at the school! We established a large orchard to the NW of the school, creating a big 'no mow' area, planted fruit trees in fruit of the school, and a shady fruiting hedgerow along the schools western edge. Gazette article about the planting. The students, directed by team leader Scott Green, broke into groups and got to work weeding, digging, planting,                                                                 mulching, staking trees and sowing clover seed.

All told we put in:

• 1 'Prok' & 2 seedling American persimmons
• 1 Cornelian cherry
• Asian pears: 1 shinko, 1 shinsui, 2 nijiseiki
• 5 Siberian pea shrubs
• Chestnuts: 2 Chinese, 1 Belle epine
• 1 Black walnut
• 2 American hazelnut

    This is a big step for a public high school, and sets a great precedent for what's possible in Hampshire County. This fall, as we look forward to a similar sized planting at the HS in the Montague school district, we hope to set a trend in which school grounds become not only outdoor classrooms, but learning opportunities and assets for the surrounding community, offering food and medicine plants as well as demonstrating permaculture planting sites.

We're offering low-cost native plants that produce berries, roots, nuts and herbs for yards and gardens with a spring plant sale. They're from NH and NY state forest nurseries, and Cold Stream Farm in MI. The large volume of plants we ordered them qualified us for great discounts, and the overflow stock we can sell at reasonable prices to offset our costs.

The proceeds will fund public planting projects this spring. Over their long lives, they will yield hundreds of pounds of fresh food. Plants are small, 1-2 ft. seedlings. Expect 3-8+ years for fruit. Pick up BARE ROOT plants in Northampton 1st weekend in May. All plants 5$ ea or 5 for 20$.

Email helpyourself.noho@gmail.com to order, or use the form below!
   
    Species Available:

• Black Walnut – tree, abundant edible nuts. 70 ft+. Plant 2+ for fruit. Space 30'+ apart.
• Nannyberry – shrubby tree, delicious raisin fruits. 20 ft., Space 10'
• Rugosa Rose – thorny shrub, pink flowers, edible hips. 6 ft. Space 5'
• American Plum – small tree, flowers, plums in summer Need 2+ for fruit. 12 ft. Space 6-8'
• High-bush Cranberry – shrub, flowers, sour red fruit in fall. 10 ft. Space 6'
• Sunchoke– Jerusalem artichoke w. delicious starchy root. Spreads, persists, productive. 6 ft.
• Persimmon – tree w sweet fruit to 50' Need male&female for fruit. Unsexed. Space 30'.
• Hazelnut – American. Dense shrub to 10'. Need 2+ for nuts. Space 5-10'.
• Juneberry – Serviceberry (A. alnifolia). Shrub to 10'. Space 5-8'. Delicious berries.
• Black Aronia – Chokeberry. Nutritious, astringent fruit used for juice. Shrub to 8'.
• Black Elderberry – shrub to 10'. prefers moist soil. Edible/med. Berries.

It's time, people! The cardinals are singing, the robins are out of the woods, and... farther south, rumors of crocuses. Spring is around the bend and it's time rub the winter out of our eyes and gear up for another planting season. Well, maybe in a few weeks. Below is our incoming laundry list for this spring! Stay tuned for planting parties!

Organization:

Meetings:
A core group of 3-6 members have been meeting bi-monthly at Owl and Raven Community Space in Northampton, on the 2nd and 4th Thurs. of each month from 7 – 8:30p.
Process:
We've identified, designed, approached, negotiated and planted at many sites. We'd like to refine this process to make it applicable on a larger scale and in more communities, as volunteers join.
Volunteers:
In addition to a core organizing group, a half dozen folks have been involved during larger planting projects. This year, 6 Five College interns logged ~100 hours at Tripple Brook, earning HYS plant credit, as well as doing site prep and plantings. Additionally, 13 8-12th graders from North Star and Four Rivers put in a full week of work on the Rail Trail and beyond, planting and clearing.

HYS purchased more than 2,000 plants with funds raised in 2013. These were stored bare root in Northampton before making their way to numerous planting projects in the Valley., or sold to community members to help cover stock costs. Many were healed in at Tripple Brook Farm, Southampton. At the end of the season, we have only a few plants left waiting in pots to get in the ground.

Planting projects:
HYS initiated more than 30 ongoing planting projects in a number of towns in the Valley, primarily Northampton, Greenfield and Hadley, making lasting relationships that will grow over time with:

• More than dozen different public K-12 schools
  
• Community gardens in 4 towns
  
• Small businesses and public institutions
  
• Non profits like Community Action, Just Roots, Grow Food Noho & Gardening the Community
  
• Town Gov't Dep'ts like recreation, public works, housing authorities, central services, and conservation commissions.

Ongoing projects:
We're involved with design work for some exciting projects for the spring, such as the Hampshire Council of Government's Lawn in Northampton, the Brookie Sculpture Park in Greenfield, the Parent Child Development Center in Amherst.

Upcoming possibilities:
Projects in the negotiation phase include plantings at the Forbes Library, the Northampton and Holyoke Public Schools, Wentworth Farms Cons. Area in Amherst, the Green River Rec Area in Greenfield, many of Nuestras Raices' community gardens in Holyoke, more small businesses, and community access trees on peoples' home lawns.

Measuring Success:

Plant volume & handling:
Despite handling a large volume of bare root and fragile stock, we have had very good success. Of all trees planted, only 2 died. Extra seedlings after planting and sales were offered in plant giveaways.

Plant sources:
Larger saplings were ordered from Millers Nurseries, Fedco & Tripple Brook. Many plantings consist of 1-3 trees, which could expand to polycultures or forest gardens over time. Bare root orders from Cold Spring Farm & the NH State Forest Nursery shipped more than 1000 <2ft native nut and fruit trees and shrubs. These will b transplantable as larger saplings later. Those remaining will become a food forest near GCC.

Publicity:

• Rail Trail project and HYS in the Gazette (4/13) Brookie park in the Recorder (10/13).
  
• We gave a presentation promoting public edibles to the Northampton City Council in April.
  
• HYS Facebook page keeps growing (230 'likes'), blog updated monthly, and web site traffic averages 20 hits a day.

Impact:

• Over 2,000 perennial, food-bearing plants added to the communities, ecosystems and food systems of the 3 county area: 500+ at or near schools, 120+ along the Rail Trail, 160+ at organizations, parks and comm. gardens, and 660 to area homes and gardens through sales and gifts.
  
• Dozens of community members and many K-College students had an opportunity to plant perennials at public locations meaningful to them over the year.
  
• In countless instances while working on plantings along the Rail Trail, passersby were overheard excitedly commenting about the gardens, and observed picking produce.
  
• Volunteers led 28 free plant walks along the bike path in '12 and 10 more in '13
  

Planting locations:
While great potential for public planting exists everywhere, circumstances led us to our first round of planting projects:

• Northampton: Manhan Rail Trail @ Nagle Walkway, 'Frog Town', O'Donnel House and Cahill Apts (NHA), Chabad Northampton, Vernon St. PCDC, Community Staffing, Cutchins Academy
  
• Florence: Florence Organic Community Garden
  

 Networking & Outreach:

Town chapters?:
A different organizing group has started to form in Greenfield, being the first offshoot of HYS, broadening the focus of organizers from Northampton to the larger Valley. How can community scale and focused chapters collaborate and communicate? What are the benefits of larger, regional cooperation? Let's find out!

Finances:
HYS received two Ritual Arts Collective community grants, a number of donations of resources and money, had a successful plant sale, and organized a crowd sourcing campaign. Having spent 7000$ on plants and 400$ on supplies, we stand with 2,300$ and plans for a winter fundraiser.

                    Challenges and Limitations:

Burden of Maintenance:
The burden of maintenance will grow for HYS with each new project, and as existing plantings grow. Though forest garden design aims to create self-maintaining systems, the ability of this organization to demonstrate quality and competently maintained gardens in the future will be limited by the size of volunteer pool, +/or the ability to offer a stipend for a youth maintenance corps. This is critical, as garden presentation affects the decisions of other institutions in regards to planting on their property. Additionally, maintenance effects harvest yield, and will either inspire or disappoint the communities that interact with the plantings.

Membership:
A wider pool of members would help sustain HYS financially and logistically, spread out maintenance labor and increase capacity for further organization and plantings. This bottleneck has limited the capacity and scope of plantings, in the context of outreach, finding planting locations, and especially, design. If you are reading this... are you willing to get involved?

'Institution Interface':
Navigating the concerns and complex politics and ownership claims of the commons has been getting easier. Can we codify this process?

Goals for 2014:

• Increase membership to 20 volunteers w/ yr long commitment of maintenance. Find volunteers willing to engage the community with the landscapes through education and plant walks.
  
• Connect plantings at public schools to volunteers in the community who, using the plantings, can help promote permaculture to K-12 students and their community.
  
• Offer volunteer trainings for weeding, season-long care, pruning, grafting, and home-scale propagation of polyculture plants.