Help Yourself - Public Access Food Forests
  • Help Yourself!
  • Plant Sale
  • Donate
  • Get Involved!
    • Volunteer >
      • Volunteer weeding guide

Sponsor a public fruit tree for increased brand exposure:

          Participate in a growing and exciting movement of local food culture by sponsoring one or more public fruit trees in your town! Businesses and institutions will be thanked on our website, in our newsletter, on our planting map, and with metal donor tags with text of your choice on each tree donated, and will be mailed a sticker to promote your community engagement. We estimate 30,000 people pass our plantings annually.
          Corporate members offer critical support for our mission. Benefits include enduring public recognition, edible landscaping at your office location(s) and more!

Sponsorship structure:
  • 1 grape vine   20$
  • 1 fruit tree       30$
  • 2 trees            25$ ea.
  • 3+ trees          20$ ea
  • Community orchard (10 trees, flowers, herbs, metal signs, bench): 1250$
Picture
    Submit a sponsorship request here. We'll contact you soon with details!
Sponsor tree(s)!

Picture
Edible Landscaping for Businesses and Institutions:
Help Yourself partners with local businesses and institutions that would like community fruit or nut trees and wildflowers planted on their lawns or to have existing fruit trees maintained.
In exchange for the negotiable amount of space offered by your lawn, we'll design, plant and maintain an edible landscape by tax-deductible donation. Email: helpyourselfnoho@gmail.com

Picture
Edible Landscaping:
    From China to California, and the UK to the East Coast, edible landscaping is a fast growing worldwide movement. Not only do plantings beautify an area for those who live and work there, they increase business, tourism, and sense of community and decrease crime. Fruit trees bless communities with real wealth in the form of nutritious, delicious, free and local food for generations, and inspire us to remember our close connection to the land that sustains us.

Picture
Edible landscapes support your businesses in many ways:
  • Being part of a novel trend is a customer draw, putting your establishment on the leading edge of local food culture and puts you on the map, literally, of participating institutions in the area
  • Plantings demonstrate both a commitment to the community in which you operate, and concern about issues of food accessibility, and help increase the Valley's capacity to feed itself and support wildlife.
  • You, your staff and customers will enjoy fresh, organic, local fruit and a great view of blossoms.

Landscaping options:
  • One or more fruit or nut trees. Full sized and dwarf varieties, many heirloom cultivars.
  • A hedge of berry bushes along the sidewalk or walkway define space.
  • Herbs and wildflowers beneath the trees support their health, attract butterflies, and beautify the space.
  • Fruiting vines, like grapes climb up existing fences or railings.
  • Existing fruit trees? If you have existing fruit trees like crab or ornamental varieties, we can graft larger fruiting varieties onto them, prune them, and underplant them with companion herbs and flowers to increase pollination, disease resistance, and fruit production.
Participating businesses:
  • Community Enterprises, Inc., Northampton
  • Northampton Mini Mart, Northampton
  • Trans' World Food Market, Hadley
Picture
Forest gardening: A growing gardening movement worldwide also called permaculture design.  Boasting an active presence in the Pioneer Valley, after a decade of growing demonstration home gardens in the area, public plantings and regeneration of the commons are becoming the norm.

The values of permaculture are:
  • Care of the earth:  Without a healthy earth life cannot flourish.
  • Care of the people:  All people should have access to fresh food.
  • Return of Surplus: Surpluses, like dead leaves, are returned to the soil.

Some Participating institutions and organizations:
  • Hampshire Council of Governments, Northampton
  • Community Action! Youth Programs, Greenfield
  • Double Edge Theater, Ashfield
Picture
Maintenance:
Forest gardens use the web of beneficial relationships in forest ecosystems and are therefore low maintenance and high yielding. Herbs and flowers perform the functions done by humans like fertilizing, spraying or mulching. We'll train interested staff in maintenance techniques. For the most part, this only consists of minimal watering during dry weather. Your plantings will be included in a larger seasonal maintenance plan in the area done by HYS volunteers. This includes a guarantee of yearly fruit tree pruning, mulching and fertilizing. We do not spray for pests.

Fruit Harvest:
Public fruit trees will be placed on a printed and internet map of the area, with existing fruit trees, wild nut trees, and Help Yourself plantings. These maps are available for the public, and the fruit should have no trouble finding homes. In the even that there is fallen, uncollected fruit beneath the trees, volunteers can help collect it, and and bring it to local food shelters.

Picture
Design Process:
Our landscape designers will meet with you or your staff about your space limitations, desires and needs. We'll consider shade, slope, access and existing plants, and come up with a list of edible species suited to your site. After your feedback, you'll receive landscaping proposal with a map and timeline for planting.


Available species:  Which are your favorites?

Fruit trees:
  • Apple (many varieties)
  • Plum and Quince
  • Pear & Asian pear
  • Persimmon
  • Paw-paw
  • Chestnut, walnut, hazel
  • Sweet oak

Vines:
  • Concord grape
  • Hardy kiwi
  • Cinnamon vine (yam)
Perennial vegetables:
  • Jerusalem artichokes
  • Rhubarb
  • Sorrel
Bushes:
  • Gooseberry
  • Juneberry
  • Honeyberry
  • Beach plum
  • Bush cherry
  • Sea berry
  • Aronia
  • Fruiting rose
Flowers & Medicinal herbs:
  • Echinacea
  • Bee balm (Bergamot)
  • Day lily, iris
  • Mint and lemon balm
  • Lavender, catnip
  • Wild ginger
  • Clover

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
  • Help Yourself!
  • Plant Sale
  • Donate
  • Get Involved!
    • Volunteer >
      • Volunteer weeding guide