Food Forest
Learning Lab at PHS

A Food Forest Learning Lab, Why?

What is a food forest?

A food forest is a matter of stacking function and aesthetics to pack as many diverse edible and food producing plants in a defined space to mimic ecosystems and patterns already found in nature year round.

In the beginning, yields will primarily come from edible perennials (like edible grains, cover crops, alliums, root veggies, vines, etc) giving students the opportunity to experience gardening and reap the rewards of harvests every season.

As time goes on, the food forest will mature into a self-sustaining system that will produce a larger variety of foods like stone fruits, apples, herbs and an abundance of berries, ground covers, etc. that students can rely on long term.

An outdoor classroom and seating area allows students to enjoy a safe and relaxing environment to hang out in and learn, work and share ideas amidst the diverse ecosystem created by the food forest.

What is a Learning Lab?

A learning lab is a space for exploring new ideas in an experiential manner, while developing a culture of collaboration between academic subject areas, and increasing the capacity for educators to integrate new learning into their classrooms.

A learning lab is defined as a physical and human space for observation, experimentation and evaluation, to rethink and enrich learning and teaching practices. A learning lab is an incubator of pedagogical innovation and learning, and our approach to reimagining education in the modern age.

This Food Forest Learning Lab will be a space for many classes to explore and integrate concepts taught inside the classroom, with a range of focus areas including but not limited to: Science, Math, English, Art, History, Physical Education, and much more.

Thank you to everyone who joined our
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony!

Here We Go....

Benefits to PHS Students

Increased food sovereignty
Readily available to all students so they have open access to healthy food
A new, relaxing and inviting learning space to improve education, mental wellbeing, physical health, and social connections
Native habitat restoration, starting in our backyard! First hand experience of environmental succession over time
Opportunities for students to learn across a curriculum, by being able to take time to read or write in the garden, practice the arts outside the classroom, and much more
Experience increased mental health and physical wellbeing with the restorative powers of nature and green spaces
Increased civic leadership by allowing and encouraging students to care for the environment around them, take accountability for it's wellbeing, and participating in acts of service
Learn about growing food in their native climate (high desert, transition zone, etc.)
Completing the growing cycle from start to finish. Gardening throughout the entire life cycle, learning about what comes after the harvest. Food preservation and what to do with the abundance they have grown

Education in the Food Forest Learning Lab

Subjects that will be able to take their learning outdoors into the experiential food forest are:

- Science: Subjects such as biology, chemistry, physics, the earth sciences, geology, geography, as well as horticulture, will all be incorporated into the food forest classroom. Making observations, running experiments, tracking data surrounding climate change and growth patterns of the plants in the food forest, ecosystem involvement in the garden, and much more.
- Math: Will be incorporated into school garden education through planting measurements (Ex. seed depth, plant spacing, and row spacing), square-foot gardening techniques, and designing the garden itself. Record keeping throughout the garden will also utilize math resources, such as: tracking compost temperatures, inputs, and outputs, recording rainfall and adjusting irrigation, tracking amounts of produce harvested and given to the community, and much more.
- English: Students will practice their reading and writing skills by keeping a garden journal, labeling plants, and reading seed packets and growing guides. Writing short stories or essays about the garden or in the garden, returning to the garden in their free time to do homework, and practicing English as a second language in a restorative atmosphere such as the food forest outdoor classroom.
- Art: Students will create murals on garden beds, garden signage, bird houses, painted pots and stepping stones, etc. Drawing or painting in the garden itself can inspire and relax students. During pottery lessons, students can try and dig to find natural clay and compare that to supplied pottery clay. Students can also work with the history of art that originated from the beauty of nature and our ancestor’s attempt to capture and recreate that, in the garden.
- History: Students incorporate the garden into their history classes by planting culturally significant foods or agricultural practices from places they are learning about. They also learn about how different gardening and production practices affected food, gardening, culture, population, wars, and much more.
- Physical education: Time in the garden during physical education class can involve practicing yoga in the garden, hands on garden and compost maintenance tasks. Nutrition education is also taught by the physical education teachers, so including taste tests, cooking demonstrations, nutrition education surrounding inputs and outputs, how nurturing the garden is similar to nurturing our own living bodies, all incorporate physical education.

Standards based learning that is experiential in nature, has been proven to have a more profound impact on the learner, and their ability to not only conceptualize and integrate the lesson, but also carry their experience into other aspects of their lives.

Benefits to PHS Property

Working with nature instead of against it decrease costs of gardening like:
1. Inputs like fertilizer, compost, other amendments, mulch, etc.
2. Need for supplemental irrigation- native/ adapted trees, growing practices like guilds and polycultures. Plants helping plants. Less space but more yield with the stacking and grouping of plants. Less space required for more plants growing
Placement of trees and plants allow season based cooling and heating in the area
Closed cycle means less inputs and less wasted outputs which translates to a smaller ecological footprint overall, such as: leaf removal, soil amendments, outsourcing mulching and fertilizing, pest management

Counter clockwise from top:

P. 1 is showing the Food Forest Learning Lab at the far left of the site.

P. 2 is showing what a fruit tree guild looks like with the understory planted. 10 Standard guilds, and 13 Dwarf guilds are planned for in the Food Forest Outdoor Classroom.

P. 3 The edible garden site at the right side of the site, containing a gabion wall, a three bin compost system, 8 raised garden beds, and 4 fruit trees.

Completed work

- A ramp leveled out on either side of the site
- Prep work ahead of fence, irrigation, and compost bin installation
- Existing Gabion wall has been capped, and is ready for edible plants to climb all over it
- Fundraising for 25 fruit trees to be planted, additional native plants to mitigate erosion at the site
- Installation of infrastructure such as: the fence, and irrigation to support the additional plants
- Installation of the benches for the outdoor classroom are complete!
- Educational signage installed throughout the Food Forest Learning Lab
- Decomposed Granite ground cover spread throughout the food forest learning lab and edible garden spaces.
- Installation of the Peace Pole, a joint project of PHS's Interact club and Prescott Frontier Rotary
- $122,000 has already been raised to support this project!

Big Thanks to our Supporters!

Thank you to everyone across the District and beyond that has made this project possible!

The District Leadership Team, the Trees for Kids Grant, PHS Green Life Club, Whole Kids Grant, Seeds for Education Grant,
School and Community Garden Grant, AZ Circular Grant, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, United Way of Yavapai County, Arizona Serve, USDA Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program, Gomez Landscaping, Davis Fence Company, PUSD Education Foundation, Prescott Frontier Rotary, and A&B Sign Company.

Farm to School waves goodbye!

Greetings,

I wanted to extend my deepest gratitude for being able to run PUSD's Farm to School Program for the past year and a half. We have made incredible memories with all of you, while igniting students' love of learning and environmental literacy by providing hands-on learning experiences while promoting healthy habits through garden education. It is with a heartfelt goodbye, that the time has come to pass along this Program's legacy to volunteers and staff across the district.

My team and I have been incredibly fortunate to experience this opportunity, to empower the future stewards of our natural world through the enjoyment of the school gardens. Encouraging students to learn where their food comes from, how it impacts their own well being, and how to take care of themselves, each other, and the natural world, is a gift we will always remember.

Thank you all for your continued support, enthusiasm, and dedication to this mission. We wish you all the best of luck in continuing the lasting legacy our Farm to School Program leaves behind!

-Victoria Ellis
Farm to School Coordinator & Food Forest Learning Lab Project Manager

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Food Forest Learning Lab at PHS