Dec 22, 2016
![Toby (4th from the right, top) with us in 2014](https://r6tac7.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/P1090589.jpeg)
Toby (4th from the right, top) with us in 2014
“Permaculture gives us a toolkit for moving from a culture of fear and scarcity to one of love and abundance.” Toby Hemenway
April 23, 1952 – December 20, 2016
December brought a sad news: Toby Hemenway, permaculture activist, the author of Gaia’s Garden and The Permaculture City, and a supporter of our permaculture educational efforts in Solano County lost his battle with cancer.
We had the privilege to welcome Toby to Benicia in 2014 when he came to meet with our Benicia Sustainable Backyard team and to deliver a talk on permaculture to the community. We were just embarking on this journey of sustainable landscaping informed by permaculture, and to have this world-renowned author sit down with us and guide us was an important milestone for the organization.
I spoke with Toby for the last time in August, at one of his last public lectures. He was noticeably not feeling well, but still inquired about our progress in Benicia and was glad to hear the program was expanding to the entire county. He promised to recommend a few good speakers (which he did the following week!). It was Toby we always knew: inspiring, kind, attentive, warm and interested in the world…This is how we will remember him.
Toby’s legacy and his life’s work will continue to live in numerous permaculture gardens throughout the world, his books, his students, some of whom live and work in Solano, and through all the people he touched and inspired. Thank you, Toby.
You can view a video of when Toby’s talk with us here.
Elena Karoulina and the Sustainable Solano Team
Dec 17, 2016
Sustainable Solano presents 2017 sustainable landscaping classes for general public in Vallejo and Benicia Community Centers.
![p1140398](https://r6tac7.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/P1140398.jpg)
SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPING FOR YOUR HOUSE
Adults and teens
Winter is a good time to start dreaming and planning about our garden renewal.
This is the perfect class for homeowners who are thinking about replacing a lawn or who would like to make their current landscapes resource-wise.
You will learn about sustainable landscaping: beautiful, productive, life-supporting ecosystem featuring trees and a variety of perennials fed by “secondary” water (greywater and rainwater). We’ll discuss edible landscaping, examine a few simple design plans, look into current turf replacement rebates and tell you about sustainable landscapers in our area.
Class is taught by local landscapers promoting sustainable landscaping practices.
Benicia Community Center:
Thursdays, February 2
Thursday, March 2
Both classes are 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Cost: free ($5 administrative fee charged by the Community Center)
To register: go to Benicia Parks and Recreation
Vallejo Foley Cultural Center, 1499 N. Camino Alto
Tuesday, February 28
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Cost: free
To register: go to Greater Vallejo Recreational District
Fairfield Community Center – coming in the summer 2017!
Dec 16, 2016
Would you like to become a demonstration food forest keeper?
![](https://r6tac7.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WP_20160513_14_46_52_Smart-e1476752926875.jpg)
Would you like to convert your thirsty lawn into a thriving food-producing ecosystem fed by the laundry-to-landscape greywater system? Do you enjoy sharing your knowledge and resources with your community? Are you interested in sustainable landscaping, edible gardens, and especially permaculture? Do you own a house in Vallejo or Fairfield? Would you like to be a part of a growing permaculture community in Solano County?
If you answer “yes” to all of the above, you can be a good candidate to become a demonstration food forest keeper in 2017!
Imagine a thriving, vibrant eco-system in your front- or backyard! A few fruit trees surrounded by native and Mediterranean plants, berries, perennial vegetables, flowers, with enough space for your annual favorites.
How does this work?
We’ll design and facilitate an installation of a Seed Plot on your property. You provide volunteers (your friends and family make the best team: you learn and work together, and then you celebrate); we provide design, plants, material and expert advise, all free for you. During the installation, your laundry will become a classroom for “How to Install a Greywater System” hands-on workshop, and your yard will be open for public workshops. You then share with the community the progress of your Seed Plot for at least next 5 years: we’ll take pictures of your growing and evolving Seed Plot and advise you on maintenance and future design, while you let community in once or twice a year for a tour of your Food Forest.
We’ll have an open application process; the preliminary dates are February – March 2017 for Vallejo and June – August 2017 for Fairfield. You’ll be able to download the Application Form from our website. The Application includes a very detailed study of your proposed location for a Seed Plot and a legal part that defines parties’ roles and responsibilities.
Every application will be evaluated by our Advisory Board – a group of people with a Permaculture Design Certificate and experience in designing and building permaculture sites. The Program team will visit your site for an extensive survey and a conversation with you and your family about your potential Seed Plot.
To learn more and to meet the Advisory Board: please attend Benicia’s demonstration food forests guided tours in January – May 2017 and landscaping classes in February and March. For more information, email info@sustainablesolano.org.
Dec 16, 2016
![wp_20161119_017](https://r6tac7.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WP_20161119_017.jpg)
Sustainable Solano is looking for Benicia homes to host public Laundry to Landscape workshops (and install simple “laundry-to-landscape” greywater systems in, as part of our continuing Benicia Sustainable Backyard Program funded by the Community Sustainability Commission).
If your home meets the following requirements and you’re interested in participating in our program, please email to us at info@sustainablesolano.org asap. The workshops are scheduled for February 4 and March 4, 2017.
Requirements:
• Homeowner in Benicia
• Laundry room has an exterior wall or accessible crawlspace
• Landscape is within 50 feet of the washing machine with trees, bushes, or larger perennials to irrigate
You receive:
• Free installation (you pay $400 for materials)
Contact: info@sustainablesolano.org
Dec 15, 2016
by Nam Nguyen
![p1150966](https://r6tac7.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/P1150966-1.jpeg)
Me on the left
In the middle of the milling exercise, I stopped, as requested, and observed, without speaking, the woman in front of me. She was middle-aged, with black-rimmed glasses, and a smile that appeared hesitantly, disappeared, and then came again, wider this time. She observed me as I observed her. Although we had been introducing ourselves to different people all throughout the symposium, especially seeking out people we didn’t know to form groups with or talk with, I had not met her yet. At the end of the observation time, we were released to walk around again, but this time instead of hurriedly running around as if we were late for a meeting, work, a very important date, we slowed down, walked purposefully, meditatively. And then we stopped in front of another person, and again, without speaking, observed the person—in front of us. We smiled at each other, and then I watched the muscles on his face, a play of emotion that to my children, who cannot naturally read facial expressions, would have been a mystery—but I was able to understand the privilege of watching a stranger—no, a fellow human—feel emotions that must be so similar to mine, as his eyes watered, and tears came as he blinked, deliberately, in the moment. When it came time to move on and end the exercise, we gave each other a hug.
“It sounds like some hippy dippy thing with reading crystals,” my husband had told me, when I first showed him the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium flyer. And try as I might, even though it had been explained to me, and I had talked about it to friends, community members, and even invited the local City Council to attend, I couldn’t shake that impression myself. But I knew that Sustainable Solano was as concrete and active of a group as I’ve ever seen—full of drive and ideas, but also with the planning, organization, and execution. They weren’t about dreams. They made reality.
And yet, when Tracy Apple of Pachamama, who had originally developed the symposium over a decade ago, asked anyone who wasn’t sure what they were getting into to raise their hand, I, and about half the people there raised their hand.
“We came because after the election, we felt that we just had to do something,” a couple who had recently moved to the county told me when I asked why they had come. “I love Elena, and she asked me to come,” said another woman, “But I have no idea what she’s gotten me into.” “Our friend went to a symposium somewhere else and he said it was life-changing, that we needed to go so when we saw one in Solano County, we came,” said a group of three. “I’m a minister,” yet another attendee said, “I am really interested in interconnectedness and learning about how we can increase that in society.” “I am really into social justice. Have dedicated the last two decades of my career to it,” said another attendee. “I just walked by the street, and I’m a first world person, very concerned about the pipeline, and I wanted to see what this was about.” “I’m from Vallejo, and I didn’t expect to see anyone else from Vallejo here, but there are a lot!” a woman said. “I’m so excited and hoping to be able to form a community.”
“We are here,” Tracy and her co-presenter Josh, said, “To give you the facts from experts in their field about the state of the world today, discuss how it got there, where it is going on its current trajectory, and how to change it.” Through a series of film presentations, lectures, guided group discussions, guided personal meditations, and exercises, they did just that. As many attendees said, it wasn’t any information that they didn’t already know about the destruction of the environment, about income inequality and social injustice, but this was different in that they were allowed to sit with their feelings, be guided through the overwhelming information and despair, the inaction and feeling of, “What can one person do?”, and led to examine their own unspoken assumptions of how things worked, explore what were their own passions, how it had informed their lives up until now, and how it might shape their lives in the future—to create small, committed actions—within a community that supported and bolstered them—with the goal of stopping nothing short of changing the world.
People committed to concrete actions long and short term, from recycling, wrapping presents in newspaper, finding a socially conscious holiday gift list, to researching how to start a sustainable elementary school, joining a local non-profit organization, to committing to go home and spending more time with children and grandchildren.
After the milling exercise, which was the final exercise and presentation of the symposium, we stood hand in hand in a very large circle of almost 70 people. In my everyday life, even as my children cling to me every moment of the day, standing there holding another’s hand, I was astounded that the touch of palm to palm in had become so scarce. Everyone was asked to share a single word: energized, thankful, connected, love, alive, hopeful, peaceful, grateful, happy, community, connected.
“The Awakening the Symposium isn’t ending,” said Tracy as everyone broke off, naturally forming into groups by city or interest to prolong the experience. “It begins now.”
This was Nam’s experience. What was yours? Share your stories at info@sustainablesolano.org