Kleverbergh monitoring visit: 90% survival rate!

This January we planted a new food forest at the former horse ranch De Kleverbergh near Nijmegen in The Netherlands. This forest is part of a larger project that aims to restore the lands of this former horse ranch and to create sustainable housing in its buildings. The trees and shrubs that we planted are all endemic and will eventually generate many kinds of fruits and nuts that will be a great food source for birds, insects and even the local inhabitants.

Despite a very wet winter that broke record after record (even by Dutch standards), the trees and shrubs have been doing extremely well. Firstly, with a survival rate of over 90% almost all of them have caught on. Better still, some of the shrubs were already producing berries! It is incredible to see the difference compared to January when we were planting in the midst of winter with a beautiful layer of snow on the trees. Now, the first blackcurrants and redcurrants were already ripe and shining in the sun! 

In the next few months, these trees will grow further and will hopefully produce many more fruits for the local animals and people to enjoy. Our partners at De Kleverbergh will carefully maintain the trees, to make sure that this new food forest will have a lasting positive impact on local biodiversity. We will keep monitoring their progress over the next few years and keep you posted on how they are doing!