Swale is a 5,000 square foot floating food forest, built atop a barge that travels to public piers in New York City. It is an autonomous zone on the water where folks can visit to harvest herbs, fruits and vegetables from the gardens for free. Since 2016, I have partnered with founding artist Mary Mattingly and an incredible team of collaborators to design, build, maintain and learn from plants on the barge. It is a site for performances, projects, panels, events and meetings, an outdoor classroom, calling attention to waterways as a commons in New York City. My work on Swale includes helping manage the networks of polyculture gardens growing on the barge, implementing educational programs at the intersections of wellness, arts and urban ecology for folks of all ages, leading weekend tours and walks and bringing groups of NYC school students aboard.
Learn more at swaleny.org
