Early on November 4th, with dewy grass and crisp morning air, we welcomed more than 30 students, faculty, and staff from Augusta University to our beautiful Greystone Preserve in North Augusta. Together, we planted fruit trees and shrubs, including mulberry, peach, plum, nectarine, and blueberry; companion plants such as russian comfrey; and pollinator plants like butterfly bushes, lantana, and rudbeckia!

Our goal is to create an edible forest on the Greystone Preserve — both to use as an educational teaching tool, and as a means of rejuvenating and restoring the soil to full health. Currently, the soil in some areas of the Preserve is poor in nutrients and densely compacted, so plants like these will help to make it healthy, giving us a strong foundation for the future of the Greystone flora and fauna!

The AU volunteers’ hard work gave Greystone’s food forest an incredible head start.  But there is still much to be done. If you or your organization are looking for community service opportunities, please contact us at bethany@csrlt.org.

We can’t say thank you enough to each and every one of the AU Day of Service volunteers and their willingness to spend their Saturday morning getting their hands dirty! Take a look at the photos and time-lapse video below for a taste of all the action.

For even more photos of our time together, click here!