creative ideas- urban growing

[ezcc]

My brother has a half acre (or so) of land located in an industrial area that we are thinking of cultivating somehow. It backs up to a watershed/park area that is not used (the park/river are adjacent to a highway), is bordered by train tracks on side and some small industries nearby. It is very secure, nobody would have any reason to go there and it's just sitting there. It is currently wooded. We are thinking of putting bee hives there, but got the idea of maybe some nut trees, fruit bushes. It's quite close to where we both live, but neither of us has interest in creating anything that would require a ton of watering/maintenance more than a check up every week or so. Any other creative ideas? I don't know of any soil contamination issues- the area has never been used for anything but could be subject to current or (more likely) past air pollution issues. We are in the midatlantic. thoughts?

[ms.shell]

i have been surprised at how easily strawberries grow and quickly multiply with no attention. Maybe you could underplant your fruit trees with strawberries as ground cover.
Like I said, ime, they send out runners and multiply very easily, so you would only need to start with a few plants, and in a year they will spread significantly.
good luck!

[ezcc]

strawberries are a great idea- i have some now taking over my deck and sending out runners every which way. Do they do ok w/some shade? I guess another thing we need to consider is deer- since this backs to a park/river there are sure to be deer there. But since nobody lives there we don't need to worry about aesthetics and could put up an ugly fence.

[prescottchels]

You could offer it up as a garden co-op where other folks section off plots to grow their own gardens. Maybe they pay you cash or in spare harvest...?