OASIS
Six-acre food forest
Six acres of open land being converted into a perennial food forest through swales, tree planting, and long-horizon observation.
Oasis / first swale / 2016NODE BRIEF
Oasis is the first large-scale land project: roughly six acres on State Route 28 in Delhi, New York, with slopes up to twenty percent and no existing food infrastructure.
The work began with contour mapping and swale excavation. The first swale runs roughly four hundred feet, two feet deep and four feet wide, with a ten-percent spillway. Water was observed running into it even without rain.
Chestnut, hazelnut, yellowhorn, American plum, Siberian pea shrub, elderberry, aronia, Korean pine nut, and sunchoke were planted in succession. The end goal is a stable, low-input food forest for recreation and resilience.
