Pride High School Food Forest Project

We are asking the community of Lockhart and beyond to donate to our forest garden at Pride High School.

We have begun transforming the 3,000 sq foot fenced garden area on Pine Street, next to Adam’s Gym and PHS. We aim to create an all-seasons food forest that allows students to immerse themselves in an edible landscape. Food forests need to be well planned and managed in the early stages but require less and less maintenance over time.

What is a food forest? A food forest, also called a forest garden, is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Food forests are three-dimensional designs, with life extending in all directions – up, down, and out. Generally, we recognize seven layers of a forest garden – the overstory, the understory, the shrub layer, the herbaceous layer, the root layer, the ground cover layer, and the vine layer. Using these layers, we can fit more plants in an area without causing failure due to competition.

With your help, we will purchase and plant an array of native and adapted fruit trees, nut trees, herbs, veggies, berries and more, plus install an irrigation system that would allow this garden to thrive in all seasons.

“PRIDE High School (PHS) is LISD's Academic High School of Choice. PHS focuses on individualized learning through self-paced online curriculum blended with student-centered instruction utilizing Project Based Learning (PBL). PHS exists to serve students with many different stories who, for one reason or another, may not have found success in a more traditional setting. PHS is the ideal choice for students who wish to accelerate their learning because they are seeking to graduate early, those who are seeking to recover credits, or students who are simply seeking a smaller high school community.

Our students have a story, and our mission is to provide a challenging, safe, nurturing environment where students can explore their interests through individualized learning. 

I am passionate about educating all aspects of life to prepare our students to be active fully, productive members of the local community and beyond. The Pride High School Community Garden is born from that idea, to create a space for students to learn about food, nutrition, cooking, hard work, preparedness, the earth, nature, ecosystems and all of the connections in between. To bring the kids and the community together to learn, to eat, to have fellowship and connect. 

Our goal is to create a community food forest where we can use the food we grow to teach cooking classes, cook food for events, host farmer's markets and more.” - Ethan Peters - Principal

We have been preparing the space since March of 2022 by laying sheet mulch and wood chips, and spreading a blend of compost (donated by Kitchen Pride in Gonzales) and soil.

We have worked over 100 hours preparing this space for the plants you will help privide.

Please join us in creating a forest garden that will benefit many generations.

“All the world's problems can be solved in a garden,” - Bill Mollison