We’re Partnering with the Phoenix Food Forest Initiative to Design & Steward the Largest Urban Food Forest in the U.S.
Are you free on Saturday October 4th? Come help us plant trees!
Welcome to the Food Forest
I first met Christopher Macy this year, 2025, after chatting with my mentor Greg Peterson on the Urban Farm Podcast Episode #839 about Food Forest Innovations. After the interview, Greg was really enthusiastic about connecting me with Chris due to our obvious overlap in projects.
Chris started the Phoenix Food Forest Initiative right in his front yard, planting fruit trees along his side yard/parkway and getting his neighbors excited about it as well. With their permission he planted over 200 fruiting & shade trees and perennial vegetable understory.
As I’m writing this, the 20 neighborhood parkways in the diagram here are the planted zones. These essentially make up part of Zone 3 (the visible “Block”) of Chris’s permaculture zone map.
As you can see, Chris has much bigger plans — he wants to expand tenfold throughout his entire neighborhood — the full 4th Zone!
The goal is an additional 2,250 fruit trees running east to west and north to south within the boundaries of 35th Avenue to 37th Avenue and Van Buren Street down to Roosevelt Street.
This expansion will not only maximize the available planting space but also deepen our impact by increasing food access, urban canopy coverage, and long-term neighborhood sustainability.
And what about the light blue lines? From Chris:
These alleys are slated for transformation into vibrant garden corridors, with wall gardens to be installed after the gates are in place and the spaces have been cleaned and restored. All enhancements will be made while preserving full access for emergency vehicles. [Black arrows] are where gates will be installed by the City of Phoenix, as applications and petitions are submitted and the neighborhood moves up the implementation waitlist.
Quite the project, huh?
How is Permascaping involved?
From the get—go, I’ve pondered on how this model could be scaled throughout the valley. If anyone can do it, it’s Chris, and I want to do whatever we can to support expansion of this.
We also want to ensure the longevity and maximum success of the Food Forest Initiative.
The second time I visited the Forest I had accrued quite a bit of permaculture landscape design knowledge, and I paid closer attention to the plantings they had done the previous event. And I noticed something important:
The trees were planted really close together. I’m talking Pakistani mulberries, olives, and other deciduous trees planted 4 ft on center.
This isn’t to knock Chris in any way — the work that has happened already is incredible and inspiring. I just noticed that there was an opportunity — a duty, even — to space these trees out. Too close together, and they can’t grow to their full potential. They compete with each other for nutrients, water and sunlight, and their shade- and fruit-bearing qualities are dwarfed as a result.
By digging these 1st-year trees out this winter while they’re dormant, and replanting them, bare-root, in their new locations, we can easily double, triple, even quadruple the size of the Food Forest without even bringing in any more trees. This drastically reduces the donation need and creates a teaching moment for people about proper tree spacing and how to move a young tree if needed. Critical info!
As Chris and I discussed creating a new layout, I fully came to terms with what our partnership is meant to be with a project such as this one: treat them like a client.
So, the Phoenix Food Forest Initiative will be Permascaping’s first completely pro-bono client.
I’m excited to pursue this relationship — not only because of the massive impact we will have on Chris’s neighborhood, but also because it will serve as a pilot for projects like this one all over the country.
Anyone who feels capable, even without the permaculture knowledge, can start something like this in their neighborhood — and we can help make it a success.
Feeding, shading, cooling, beautifying.
