What is Tilth Alliance able to provide?
If selected, we can provide you with the following:
- DESIGN: We’ll work with you and your community to design a food forest or orchard space based on your goals and based on design principles and decisions that will set you up for long-term success.
- INSTALLATION: We’ll work with you to test and prepare the soil and then plant your food forest. Ideally, this work is done with volunteers or participants from your community. We can help to plan the installation and lead or support day-of activities, as well as recruit additional volunteers if needed.
- TREES AND PLANTS: We’ll provide fruit trees, berry bushes, pollinator support, and other native ecosystem plants to install the initial food forest based on the design plan. We can provide these for the initial planting and offer ongoing access to free plants from our community plant nursery and/or facilitate plant swaps among food forest partners.
- TOOLS AND OTHER SUPPLIES: We will supply initial maintenance tools (pruners, loppers, saws, etc.) and other orchard supplies such as protective fencing and irrigation.
- EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: We’ll develop a site-specific care manual based on the fruit trees and berries at your site, including a monthly maintenance calendar and 5-year maintenance plan. We will also offer several hands-on training workshops, so stewards can feel confident caring for the food forest. These workshops will be offered at Tilth Alliance’s orchard sites and at partner sites to connect stewards from around the county. Stipends are available for participants to help in attending these workshops.
- ONGOING SUPPORT: We will schedule 1-2 site visits in the first year and annual site visits in subsequent years to offer ongoing support for your food forest and stewards. We are happy to answer questions along the way. A monthly newsletter will share news of what’s going on in other food forests, as well as reminders of seasonal tasks to be working on in your food forest.
What are the requirements for partnering to create a food forest?
If you’d like to partner with us to install a food forest, you should be able to commit to the following:
- AGREEMENT: Sign a letter of agreement outlining mutual commitments.
- LANDOWNER PERMISSION: Provide a signed letter of permission from the land owner (or decision-making equivalent) to install a food forest.
- PUBLIC/COMMUNITY ACCESS: The food forest and harvest must be publicly available and/or available for community benefit. You will need a plan for how to harvest and distribute the produce.
- WATER SOURCE: We can support developing water management strategies, such as drip irrigation, watering bags and potentially water catchment, but the site will need to already have some kind of water access.
- TOOL STORAGE: Store tools in a safe, locked area that is within close proximity to the food forest. We can provide or contribute funds toward tool storage, if needed.
- SITE VISITS & DESIGN WORK: Participate in an initial site visit and in developing a design for the food forest. We can lead, facilitate or support a process that works best for you. We will develop or review the design plan based on best practices and submit the plan to our funder for additional review.
- INSTALLATION: Lead or co-lead the installation in fall through early spring. We can help with planning the event and can lead or support the day-of activities.
- ONGOING CARE: Commit to following a 5-year maintenance plan, based on a custom orchard care manual we develop for you.
- FOOD FOREST STEWARDS: For a food forest to be successful, we require each site to identify at least two lead stewards (staff, volunteers or other community members) who will take on the responsibility of caring for the food forest. They will need to commit to the following:
- MAINTENANCE TASKS: Throughout the year, the food forest will require monthly and sometimes weekly maintenance tasks such as watering, weeding, pruning, pest management, soil care, harvesting, and distribution or processing of harvest.
- LEADING VOLUNTEERS OR COMMUNITY MEMBERS: Stewards will likely need to engage other volunteers or community members in occasional work parties. We can support developing a volunteer engagement plan if stewards or the site partner needs help with this.
- ONGOING TRAINING: We ask that the stewards attend in-person workshops to learn about seasonal maintenance tasks and other topics. These workshops also will serve to build community amongst other stewards that can help with troubleshooting issues and collective organizing, etc. Tilth Alliance can provide stipends for participants to attend.
- COMMUNICATION: Stewards should be responsive to communication regarding site visits and check-ins. They should commit to reading the monthly newsletter and keep up on seasonal tasks or communicate if they are experiencing challenges.
- TRANSITION PLAN: The partner and/or stewards should commit to identifying additional stewards if a steward cannot continue to fulfill their responsibilities for any reason, and work to find a replacement and orient them to the position.
What is the timeframe?
We are reviewing applications as they are received and will typically select projects, conduct site visits and support design work in spring/summer for installation and planting events in fall/early winter. We are currently reviewing applications for fall 2026 and spring 2027 planting seasons.
After I submit my application, when will I hear back from you?
We typically review applications and respond within 2-3 weeks to let you know if you’ve been selected and share next steps.
Who is eligible?
We are working with partners on projects that take place on publicly owned land and/or where the food forest offers a community benefit, such as a school garden, community farm or garden, public park, housing authority property, etc. Your project can create a new space or add onto an existing garden or outdoor space, but you should have permission from the landowner, access to water and enough space to add 5-10 fruit trees (at least 500 square feet). You will need at least 2 staff or community members who can become food forest stewards and commit to ongoing maintenance, along with a plan for sharing the future harvest.
How much space do I need?
To add 5-10 trees, plan to have at least 500 square feet. We can sometimes work in smaller spaces using dwarf or compact fruit trees.
We already have a garden and/or some fruit trees, but would like to add more, are we still eligible?
Yes, we’re happy to help partners expand their existing space by adding at least 5-10 additional fruit trees and accompanying shrubs and other plants.
What kinds of trees and plants are available?
During the design process we can help identify fruit trees, berry bushes and other plants that meet community needs and are suitable for growing in the Pacific Northwest. Some of our favorite fruit trees, vines and berries include: plums, persimmons, apples, European and Asian pears, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, kiwiberries, strawberries and native fruits like salmonberry, thimbleberry and evergreen huckleberry. We can also include native ecosystem trees and plants, medicinal and culinary herbs and plants to support pollinators.
I am already part of a community orchard or food forest, and we need help maintaining it. Can you help?
We are happy to include you in our network and provide educational resources, but our primary focus is on supporting new community projects and fostering a network of food forest partners to share resources and ideas, rather than directly maintaining sites. You might reach out to an organization like City Fruit, which may have capacity to host volunteer events at public orchards or recruit community-based Master Fruit Tree Stewards and assign them to your site, depending on capacity. You might also reach out to King Conservation District for support, including small grants that may help you meet your site needs.