April 10, 2023
For immediate release
Media Contact: Allison Nagel
805-512-0901
allison@sustainablesolano.org
Interviews, photos and other materials available upon request
Quick facts:
- Sustainable Solano’s Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour will be 9 am-4 pm Saturday, April 22 (Earth Day)
- This year’s tour will include informational talks and self-guided tours of private and community gardens that practice waterwise principles of rainwater capture and, in some cases, laundry-to-landscape greywater systems. These gardens build healthy soil, grow food and create habitat.
- Educational talks will be on food forests, lawn conversions, greywater systems and composting.
- Most gardens on the tour were created through Sustainable Solano’s Solano Sustainable Backyards program, funded by the Solano County Water Agency. The first seven food forest gardens in the program were made possible through funding from the Benicia Sustainability Commission.
- The tour is free with a $10 suggested donation
- Learn more and register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/benicia-vallejo-annual-demonstration-food-forest-tour-tickets-568395304657
2023 Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Tour is April 22
Sustainable Solano’s food forest keepers will be opening up their demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia and Vallejo for the annual tour on Saturday, April 22.
Each garden offers ideas and inspiration on how to use water efficiently while creating a lush thriving garden that supports life and provides food and habitat. Some of the garden sites will have education and information on bees, honey, monarch butterflies, laundry-to-landscape greywater, compost, native plants, local food, guided tours, spring festivals and so much more. There will also be laundry-to-landscape greywater education in English and Spanish.
Most of the gardens on the tour were created through Sustainable Solano’s Solano Sustainable Backyards program, funded by the Solano County Water Agency. The first seven food forest gardens in the program were made possible through funding from the Benicia Sustainability Commission. Others were inspired by these gardens. All of the gardens showcase plants that thrive in Solano County.
This year, Sustainable Solano formed a new partnership with the Vallejo People’s Garden and together installed the Pollinator Pathway native plant garden on Mare Island, which will be part of the tour.
“Our deepest hope for this year’s tour is that people get energized and inspired to take action and become caretakers of the land and each other,” said Program Manager Nicole Newell, who runs the organization’s Solano Sustainable Backyards program.
Other Sustainable Solano garden tours this year will include the Fairfield-Suisun City Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour on May 6, and the Vacaville Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour on June 3.
Learn more about the tour here: https://sustainablesolano.org/2023-benicia-vallejo-demonstration-food-forest-tour-is-april-22/
Learn more about each garden here: https://sustainablesolano.org/2023-benicia-vallejo-tour-featured-gardens/
About Sustainable Solano
Sustainable Solano is a countywide nonprofit organization that brings together programs that support and sustain one another and the Solano County community to promote ecologically regenerative, economically and socially just communities in a world that works for everyone. Initiatives include sustainable landscaping, local food, resilient neighborhoods, youth leadership, sustaining conversations and community gardens.
For more information, visit sustainablesolano.org
