Planting an urban mini-forest
Text below excerpted from ecoRI News
“PROVIDENCE — There was a method to the madness of planting 185 trees and 80 shrubs 2 to 3 feet apart in a 1,000-square-foot corner of the Pearl Street Garden.
“The method is named after Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist and ecologist who specialized in natural vegetation restoration of degraded land. His method has been implemented worldwide. He died in 2021 at the age of 93.
“The Miyawaki Method focuses on swiftly creating dense, biodiverse forests — or, in the case of the Pearl Street Garden, a microforest — using native vegetation. The practice involves planting seedlings at high density, to mimic natural forest ecosystems and to rely on natural processes such as competition and mutualism to accelerate growth….”