Luke Gascho - Farming with trees
[Above: Alley cropping - Walnut trees flank corn (maize) in a field in France]
Agroforestry - is the idea of growing food on trees, or together with trees.
Dr. Luke Gascho is the recently-retired director of Merry Lea. He continues to experiment with trees and agriculture.
Luke is trying out farming in ways that he think might work for farmers in Northern Indiana. It's his own unique "bag of tricks", but it overlaps with some of these agroforestry practices, among others:
- Growing food on trees (perennials) instead of as crops (annuals). See Drawdown's Perennial Staple Crops solution.
- Alley cropping: Planting annual crops in the "alleys" between rows of trees.
- To save the corn belt, plant trees [Mother Jones] How intercropping walnuts and corn can counteract soil erosion.
- Growing food at several different levels: Drawdown's Multi-strata agroforestory solution.
Visit to Luke Gascho's Tree Garden, November, 2021 (29 minutes). Turn up the volume, this was a little
Luke has been particularly inspired by:
- The Savanna Institute. Merry Lea worked with them to develop their Woody Perennial Polyculture 5-acre plot.
- Mark Shepard. He wrote the book Restoration Agriculture. He is one of the founders of the New Forest Farm in Wisconsin.
Field trip
We'll meet at his farm / home by 2:10 PM on the day (depending on weather) we go. Go South (past the GC athletic fields) on the bikepath, until you reach a road--Kercher Road. Don't cross Kercher Road. Just look for the rows of planted trees on your right. You're there!
Parking is limited
