This weekend a small group of volunteers planted about 70 trees and shrubs on the west-facing side of Langley Elementary and on the hill down to Harry Thomas park. Our community now has access to blueberries, figs, persimmons, sumac, mulberry, paw paw, pears, persimmons and more. The trees and plants will take some time to mature and bear fruit, but we can all be part of caring for them and watching them grow.
We would have loved to have a big event to help plant the trees and share information about the Food Forest with the neighborhood and community, but had to keep it super small because of COVID-19.
There will be a second phase of planting in the spring, and we hope to have a larger community event at that time. In the meantime, please check it out and feel free to do some weeding in the mulched beds! 
​A special thanks to DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division, Lincoln Smith of Forested, FreshFarms FoodPrints, and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (with funding from Vitafusion) for supporting the project, and to the Langley Elementary PTO and Eckington Parks and Arts for mobilizing volunteers!

Please feel free to message me with any questions.

Julia Hedlund
Langley PTO Garden & Wellness member organizing the Food Forest Project
Email: julia.hedlund@yahoo.com 
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Langley Elementary (and the neighborhood!) is getting a Food Forest! Persimmon, pear, apple, paw paw, pomegranate, fig and many other exciting (and delicious) fruit-bearing trees and shrubs will be planted on the West-facing side of the school and at the top of Harry Thomas park field. This exciting new community asset is brought to us through a partnership with the Urban Forestry Division of DDOT, Forested, the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Freshfarms Foodprints, and the Langley PTO.

We are seeking volunteers to plant trees and shrubs at the school on October 31 and November 1. We are making this volunteer opportunity as safe as possible by targeting our volunteer outreach, limiting the number of volunteers on site at a time, and requesting that all volunteers wear masks and practice social distancing.

We have set up a spreadsheet to help with coordinating and making sure we have enough people to get all the trees and shrubs planted. Please sign up here if you can commit to planting trees and shrubs for a couple hours (or more!) on one or both days. Experienced gardeners and arborists will be on site to provide guidance and information about the food forest, so please don’t be shy if you’re not a professional gardener! :)

Please feel free to email juliahedlund@yahoo.com with any questions about the Food Forest or the planting day.