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Removing barriers to food Andrew Mount works last week at a communal garden he helped build on Second Street in Phoenix. Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch Wednesday Nov 9, 2016 at 4:55 PM Nov 10, 2016 at 10:10 AM Greg Stiles Mail Tribune @GregMTBusiness PHOENIX — Andrew Mount is a grassroots evangelist, propagating the furtherance of communal gardens. The agrarian activist has simple goals: Teach people to garden for themselves and give them the tools to provide their own food security. Given access to a vacant one-fifth-acre lot on the corner of Second and Pine streets, Mount and co-gardener Nicholas Andelin began prepping the ground in 2015. Their approach wasn't typical, row-by-row planting. Instead, they developed a permaculture maze using a cast-off tree trunk and limbs from an oak that was taken down in the neighborhood. After two harvests, their plot overruns with greens and vegetables to the point they don't know what to do but to give it away. Precisely their goal. "Abundance is a natural outgrowth of permaculture design," Mount said. By mimicking natural, regenerative systems found in forests, the soil will renew itself through the contribution of decaying leaves, mulch and logs. "The idea is to achieve the highest production with minimal effort," he said. The garden is both a metaphor for Mount's perspective on life and a preview of what he'd like to see sprouting up throughout the community. Mount is the co-founder of Southern Oregon Slow Money, encouraging micro-financing for the local food and farming sector, hoping to bolster food security in the region. He presently heads up brand development for TonTon's Artisan Affections in Talent. His ambition is to convince people there is a better way to obtain vegetables than going to the store. The communal garden near Phoenix Elementary School and other educational outposts is a first step. "In permaculture, there are tons of things going on in the border regions," he said. "We create border by laying down layers of mulch between layers of soil and between the soil and log." Mount illustrated the symbiotic dance between planted and natural elements astride a log surrounded by an array of edible vegetation. "A mushroom is decomposing this log right there where the sunflower is growing. The sunflower actually grew up right through a protruding mushroom body. You can't have that happen except in a permaculture situation, because you have created the same kind of magical conditions that are witnessed in nature where a tree falls, the bark becomes mulch, the mushrooms grow, a wonderful network of fungal webs are established, then everything becomes more healthy. That's what we're doing here." The gardeners invested $2,000 and "countless" hours in developing garden beds and soil. Some seed is broadcast about the plot, other spots are more specific. "In most instances, vegetables crowd out weeds," he said. "All we have to do is thin vegetables." At the height of harvest, there were nearly 40 vegetable varieties, fruit trees, herbs and grapevines growing. Even as the gardeners are planting for a third time, the patch is ripe with a plethora of lettuce and other greens. "Permaculture gardens are time-released fertility bombs," Mount said. "We could have said, 'Here's a big garden plot that everyone in the neighborhood could come and garden,' but there aren't as many people passionate enough to spend time in the garden." Alex Ganos, general manager of Biologic Crop Solutions in Phoenix, sees plenty of benefits from Mount and Andelin's approach. "You're not just growing plants, you're building soil," Ganos said. "So you have greater water retention and you're improving soil. When you have an improved soil structure, it aids in producing nutrient-dense food." In the end, the soil is more productive, which goes hand in hand with one of Mount's goals of decentralizing food production. They've been giving away seed and vegetable starts to places such as Jackson Wellsprings to encourage gardens, but just as important in their minds is for people to learn to grow their own veggies. There are project expansion plans in the works, Mount said, the first being five blocks away in a 20-by-75-foot plot on a side yard at Biologic Crop Solutions on South Pacific Highway. "Ultimately, you don't need the food to come to you on a truck," Mount said. "We're not only interested in distributing food, but the knowledge of growing food. Our No. 1 goal is to remove money as a barrier to food." — Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31.