In July 2021, the Austin City Council approved Festival Beach Food Forest (FBFF) proposal to expand the food forest from 2/3rds of an acre to 3.5 acres. We have drafted a landscape design that integrated input from RBJ residents and the wider community. We are proposing an accessible space that will provide more food and medicine for the public. The design will be simultaneously functional and inviting, and provide many community and ecosystem services. Berms and swales will passively collect rain water and support trees. Instructive teaching gardens will provide space to learn and play. An outdoor kitchen, community deck, and education pavilion will serve as an important anchor for transforming our campus into a community resilience hub.
We plan to develop Phase 2 in stages with the he first stage beginning in fall 2023. Phase 2.1, prioritizes planting canopy trees, establishing the barrier berm along Waller Street, installing irrigation, and completing earthworks across the Phase 2 site.
Our first priority is to complete the irrigation work necessary to address capacity issues in Phase 1 and expand irrigation to the canopy trees and barrier berm in Phase 2. FBFF currently gets its water from the neighboring Festival Beach Community Garden (FBCG). At times, the shared water line has created capacity issues for FBFF. For example, FBCG is about to begin irrigation work, which will require shutting off water for several weeks. This creates an acute problem at FBFF, as we risk loss and damage to our plants without a water source. FBFF is proposing a new water line branching off just after the meter to support FBFF operations and allow us to control the flow of water independent of FBCG. This is a sustainable solution to our water needs and is crucial to preserving our current site and any further development of FBFF.
After irrigation work is done, we will do some earthwork for the Phase 2 site. While the entire site will not be planted as a part of Phase 2.1, completing earthwork for the whole site at one time is the most efficient use of funds. This is relatively low-cost work that will support the planting of trees in Phase 2.1 and future planting of trees and other plants across the full three acres in Phase 2.
Finally, with the support of hundreds of volunteers, FBFF will plant five large canopy trees and establish the barrier berm with trees, shrubs and other plants. This will complete the implementation of Phase 2.1 and increase Austin’s urban forest by adding 65 new trees. These trees will form an ecosystem that will support a growing edible landscape of nuts, fruit and medicine plants in Austin public parks.
