For a more resilient food system.
Perennial Integration Pilot
2026-2029+
After four years of soil preparation through annual cropping and rotational animal integration, the Food Solidarity Garden at Yellow Barn Farm is ready for the next stage in its succession. DAR is transitioning the garden into a perennial food demonstration. Beginning in Spring 2026, ten hedgerows of productive perennial shrubs will be established across the one-acre garden, initiating a long-term shift toward a lower-input, ecologically stable food system. Through careful documentation and honest measurement, the pilot will provide scaffolding for other Front Range farms looking to reduce inputs and increase drought tolerance and food system resilience.
Why Perennials,
Why Now
Annual cropping systems produce food, but they don't accumulate ecological capital. In semi-arid landscapes where moisture is the primary constraint, perennial plants build soil structure, deepen infiltration, and reduce input dependency over time. After four years of soil-building at Yellow Barn Farm, this field is ready.
Pilot Objectives
Beginning Spring 2026, DAR will establish ten hedgerows of productive perennial shrubs across the Food Solidarity Garden's full acre. The goal is a managed annual-to-perennial succession that reduces irrigation and labor inputs over time while sustaining food and medicine production for the community.
Learning & Accountability
DAR will track plant survival, soil moisture response, input reduction, and harvest volumes as the system matures. Results, including setbacks, will be shared as a transferable case study for Front Range farms considering similar transitions.
The Forest Garden
Building on existing knowledge.
The Perennial Integration Pilot builds on a decade of experience at the Elk Run Forest Garden, DAR's most established perennial system. Over the past decade, DAR has tended the Forest Garden within a water-harvesting swale system, producing foods and medicines for the staff and the community while progressively increasing the percentage of the perennials in the beds. By 2025, 80% of the bed feet had transitioned to perennial plants. Building on this proof of concept, the Perennial Integration Pilot serves as a demonstration at scale.