Swaleny

Background

Swale is a floating food forest launched in Summer 2016 in New York. The project is spearheaded by Mary Mattingly, the visionary behind such projects as the Waterpod, Flock House, and WetLand. This project includes many of the same designers from the previous projects and, in addition, has new team members, a designer, and contributors. Projected interactive environmental art is coordinated by BiomeArts. The barge measures 130ft x 40ft.

Mission

What if healthy, fresh food could be a free public service, and not just an expensive commodity? That’s the question we really want to ask with Swale. Swale, a collaborative floating food project, is dedicated to rethinking and challenging New York City's connection to our environment. Built on a 110-foot by 30-foot floating platform, Swale contains an edible forest garden. Functioning as both a sculpture and a tool, Swale provides free healthy food at the intersection of public art and service. With Swale, we want to reinforce water as a commons, and work towards fresh food as a commons too.

Projects

The projects on board will be open source so that they can be recreated. They will include:

Plants

The focus will be on local plants and plants that can adapt to the possibly harsher environment... and of course - their deliciousness! The plan is to grow:

TREES
Italian Alder, Pawpaw, Asian Persimmon, North Red
SHRUBS
Saskstoon, Northline serviceberry, gooseberry, huckleberry, rosemary, low bush blueberry
CLUMPS
Lovage, anise hyssop, sweet cicely, salad burnet, Egyptian onion, scallions, French sorrel, profusion sorrel, mitsuba, Borage, wild leek, Dandelion, Chives, Garlic chives, Buck's Horn Plantain, Sylvetta Arugula, Perpetual Swiss Chard, Miners Lettuce, sea beets, radicchio, nagoon berry, oregano, Kurrat leek, Roman chamomile, wild ginger, Good King Henry-Chenopodium bonus-henricus, lemon balm
RUNNER
asparagus, stampede Jerusalem artichoke, edible daylily, giant Solomon's seal, watercress, strawberries, dragon's blood, white clover, red clover, ramps, sea kale, Adam's yucca, yarrow, ostrich fern
VINE
Groundnut, Chinese mountain yam, scarlet runner bean
MAT
Raspberry ground cover, thyme, purslane, camass,
TUBER
Conopodium majus, skirret
SELF SEEDING ANNUALS
Red mustard, chard, wild arugula, wild garden chicory-cichorium, lambsquater-Chenopodium giganteum, western front kale, amaranth, cherry tomatoes, Ttmatillos,
ANNUALS
Basil, arugula, mizuna, bok choy
ENDIVES
Cilantro, kale, and more.

Press

There has been lots of great press. As this is an outreach and inspiration project, the more press the better!

Support

Swale NY has had an incredible base of support from private foundations to municipal organizations that have helped the program each year.


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