2024 Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour: April 27

Mar 28, 2024

By Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager

Loam Sweet Loam garden in Vallejo

Sustainable Solano’s annual tour of demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia and Vallejo returns on April 27 for its eighth year. Join us for our largest tour of some of the longest-established food forests in the county!

The day will include speakers and activities to keep you inspired and engaged. Register here!

We will start at 9 am at Avant Garden in Benicia with a talk about the many roles mulch plays in supporting a water-efficient garden with Heath Griffith from Grow with the Flow. Learn about:

  • What is the difference between wood chips and bark?
  • Why is mulch one of the superheroes of permaculture?
  • Does mulch increase or decrease fire risk around houses?
  • How does mulch support a water-efficient garden?

Attendees will pick up the itineraries from 9-11 am at Avant Garden for a self-guided tour of the Benicia and Vallejo gardens. This year’s tour will continue to provide education on topics related to sustainability and highlight the amazing organizations and ways people are involved in uplifting the community. In addition to education, we will also have music, an adventurous scavenger hunt for our youth, two inspired gardens and a special guest that will be present to chat about calming calendula.

The Benicia gardens will be open from 10 am-1 pm, and the Vallejo gardens will be open from 1-4 pm. Attendees who can only participate in the afternoon can pick up the itineraries for Vallejo at the Pollinator Pathway garden on Mare Island from 12-1 pm.

You can learn about each garden and the special events going on at the gardens here.

To prepare a garden tour event that is in service to our community is a gift. As I learn what inspires our food forest keepers to live, grow and contribute, I am inspired in return. Spring brings new possibilities to discover what seeds we want to plant, in our garden and in our life. Each garden serves so many functions that support an abundant, healthy life. I invite you to explore these gardens and gain your own inspiration for your gardens, your communities and your lives.

This program is made possible by the generous support from the Solano County Water Agency.

Plan Your Day

Learn about each garden you can visit here

How It Will Work

You can choose to tour for the whole day or for half a day.
Benicia Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 10 am-1 pm
Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Gardens will be open 1-4 pm

Register here

Itinerary pickup and special events:

9-11 am: Itineraries will be available at Avant Garden in Benicia (400 First St.). This itinerary will include all of the demonstration food forest gardens in Benicia (open in the morning) and Vallejo (open in the afternoon). Families can pick up a scavenger hunt sheet that will make the day more fun!

9 am: Heath Griffith of Grow with the Flow will talk about the importance of mulch at Avant Garden.

12-1 pm: Itineraries for the Vallejo garden sites (open in the afternoon) will be available at the Global Center for Success (1055 Azuar Dr/BLDG 733).

Throughout the day: Special speakers, activities and information will be available at various gardens.

Goodbye Grass

Mar 20, 2024

By Tereasa Christopherson-Tso

Tereasa is a Solano County-based artist who is working with Arts Benicia on an “artivism” exhibit focused on water conservation. Tereasa reached out to SuSol about visiting one of the demonstration food forests established through our Solano Sustainable Backyards program, and visited “Living and Learning” in Benicia, where she beautifully captured the garden in spring. She has given us permission to share her painting and artist statement, which we feel encapsulates why these gardens are so important.

You can visit “Living and Learning” and other demonstration food forest gardens during our annual Benicia & Vallejo garden tour on April 27. Learn more and register here!

Keep an eye out for a special exhibition that brings together Arts Benicia and Vallejo Center for the Arts for “Stewarding our Water Resources: Solano Artists Create, Collaborate & Educate” from May 25 through June 23.

Goodbye Grass, Acrylic, 18”x24”

I have always been a lover of pure nature where I find joy in exploring landscapes in their wildest forms and where nature alone stewards the land. The arresting beauty of the forest and the awesome vastness of the ocean have never ceased to stir my soul with creative inspiration. This past year, however, I began exploring what it means to not only be an admirer of plants and bodies of water but how to better steward them. I began attending numerous workshops held by Sustainable Solano and touring gardens they had installed for people’s yards and community gardens. This inspired my garden efforts this year and the desire to create a garden as Monet did to inspire his paintings but also one that takes into account the high value of water as a limited resource here in northern California.

I found inspiration for this painting from a front yard garden in Benecia that Sustainable Solano installed. I had the pleasure of working with their Program Manager Nicole [Newell] to tour gardens I was interested in painting for this project. Here drought tolerant plants are seen throughout the landscape, a pathway of wood mulch provides a protective layer over the dirt, and native golden poppies have sprouted up in all their super-bloom glory. By excluding grass and using more sustainable garden practices this yard requires very little water yet does not sacrifice beauty.

-Tereasa Christopherson-Tso
Take a tour of the “Living and Learning” garden in this video, and join us for the Benicia & Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Garden Tour on April 27!

Rebates for Residential Greywater Recycling

Jan 29, 2024

By Ainslee Shuemake

Ainslee is a graduate student specializing in water resource management in UC Davis’ Environmental Policy and Management (EPM) Program and wrote this op-ed piece as part of a class project. We wanted to share her insight with you and also let you know that we are currently looking for sites to host laundry-to-landscape educational workshops. If you live in Solano County and are interested in hosting a public workshop that installs a laundry-to-landscape greywater system in your home, then fill out the interest form here.

Community members help install a laundry-to-landscape greywater system during an educational workshop at a Vallejo home

As California pushes to make “conservation a way of life,” we should ask, who is going to bear the cost and responsibility to change the way we live? Well, it might be you. The State Water Resources Control Board has proposed regulations that would require conservation efforts from more than 400 cities and would raise about $13.5 billion dollars between 2025 and 2040. This new legislation would require counties and cities to limit outdoor water usage or pay a fine, and there’s a good chance that burden will be passed onto individuals. Enter: Greywater.

Greywater is produced in areas of your home such as sinks, washing machines, and bathtubs, which together account for almost 60 percent of indoor water usage. In addition, landscape irrigation accounts for almost 70 percent of all urban water usage and is the perfect candidate for greywater. How can we tap into this supply of greywater and use it for urban irrigation? Laundry-to-landscape systems are currently the most common and easy to install but there are many other options depending on budget and technicality. Providing incentives for homeowners who install these greywater recycling systems could encourage more people to use greywater in a way that would benefit both counties and individuals when it comes to mitigating rising costs of water. California has shown that green incentive programs are successful, so why not apply that strategy to water conservation and more specifically, greywater?

The good news is, about 40 percent of the money from proposed regulations would go to incentive programs geared towards conservation. Some counties in California are already offering some small rebates and even some tips and resources for installing your system. Counties that have already implemented small rebate programs are showing us that it is possible to make greywater recycling a reality throughout California and that there is real demand for incentives and rebates to make conservation and water savings more accessible.

Greywater recycling is a fairly new idea to bring into the residential sector and isn’t without its challenges. Currently, laundry-to-landscape systems are mostly do-it-yourself and require that your house have the correct layout if you choose to install it yourself. Although California is ahead of most states in the greywater game, all counties have guidelines for using greywater, so it is always important to make sure your system is both safe and healthy for you and your landscaping. Even though there are organizations out there that provide help and resources, incentives would make this process a whole lot easier and more appealing to the general public. Rebates that include the cost of having a professional install this system would encourage many homeowners that previously may not have been interested. Like any other new system or idea, it will take time for greywater recycling to gain traction, but incentives are the fastest way to get there. In the face of continued water shortages, we need that push to make sustainable water usage accessible.

Water conservation regulations are coming sooner or later and installing a greywater system in your home will help you live more sustainably now and save more money in the long run. If you are curious about greywater and how you can take action, look into your existing local rebate programs and let your local and state leaders know that greywater recycling is an integral part of conservation efforts. It is time that California invests into greywater recycling if we truly want to make conservation a way of life.

Sustainable Solano offers Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater installation workshops in partnership with Greywater Action to help get more of these water-saving systems into local homes.

A laundry-to-landscape greywater system is a simple system that runs the wash water from your laundry out to the yard to water trees and other plants in your landscape — saving water and saving your trees! These systems do not require a permit in California, and include a valve you can use to direct water out to the landscape or back to the sewer if you need to.

You can watch this informative video for a quick overview of laundry-to-landscape greywater systems.

To determine if your site might be a good fit for a greywater workshop, please fill out this survey.

Drip Irrigation Class Provides Hands-on Opportunities

Jul 21, 2022

By Heidi Varian

Heidi hosted the drip irrigation workshop a historic home in Benicia that she is restoring with some friends to create a site people can visit for an “eco-vacation.”  The site will also be the location for the upcoming Permaculture Design Certificate course. Learn more about that here!

The Sustainable Solano drip irrigation class started out with good feelings right from the beginning of the day. The best part of getting back to some sense of normalcy after the pandemic is to be outdoors, hands in the soil, and experiencing the camaraderie that you can’t have over Zoom.

There were familiar faces and new students. The teaching garden was quiet, shady and calm. Instructor Seth Wright of Water Service Irrigation Co. was appreciated as clear and understandable. Overheard were comments about his good energy and relatable teaching style. He came prepared with visual aids and a white board presentation to augment and clarify his lecture.

Sustainable Solano’s Michael Wedgley prepared his garden with a unique and creative guild design, sample swale area, raised bed for the class to learn, and provided a display of permaculture literature. He also presented a piece of PVC pipe cut to the length of the space desired between the drip lines to simplify and speed up the process of hands-on installation.

When Seth began the participation part of the class, the class needed very little encouragement to join in the learning and fun. Everyone had an opportunity to measure, cut, and connect the system.

Michael and Seth as a team facilitated a very efficient install and even had time to discuss troubleshooting. The culmination of the workshop was flushing the lines and the cascading water drew applause.

Drip Irrigation Basics

Unable to attend the in-person workshop, but still interested in how you can put drip irrigation to use for water savings at home? Check out this online talk with Seth Wright of Water Service.

Warming Water and What Can be Done

Mar 29, 2018

On March 21st, The League of Women Voters hosted a panel discussion on climate change, rising sea level, water shortages and increased water cost in Benicia. The panel consisted of three key Solano County residents. Jerry Potter, a Nasa Climate Scientist, spoke about climate models used to predict global warming and shared overwhelming data regarding increasing temperatures on earth. Not one person in the room argued against the evidence.  He emphasized that storms  and drought will be more intense as temperatures increase.

Andy Florendo, from the Solano County Water Agency covered the history of Lake Berryessa, Lake Oroville and our Solano County water shed.  He stressed the disturbing fact that California water shortages will remain chronic and if do do not begin using water more efficiently.  Mayor Elizabeth Patterson talked about integrated water management and  highlighted the importance of working together as a County to be more efficient with our use of water in our Mediterranean climate.

During the Q&A session, one main concern voiced from a woman on a fixed income was the high cost of water in Benicia.  From the shakiness in her voice, the room could sense how deeply increasing water costs were impacting the financial health of her household. She was making significant changes to conserve water in her household yet her water bill remained a financial burden. This is a problem with no real easy solution. The cost to treat poor water quality is a major component to why bills are so high.

Mayor Patterson was kind enough to listen to my question after the allotted time for Q&A. I asked, “What incentives are being done to motivate Benicia residents to install laundry-to-landscape greywater systems?”  Residents are washing their clothes weekly, so why not recycle this water to irrigate the landscape?  Using secondary water sources such water from your washing machine is a steady water source during the summer and can be used to water fruit trees, berry shrubs and many other plants.

Mayor Patterson commented that would like to hear from the Benicia community about ways to come together to conserve more water.  Show up to the next town hall meeting and collaborate with the community for creative solutions to use water more wisely.  The next city council meeting is Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00pm held in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Hope to see you there!

 

Roof Water Harvesting

Feb 21, 2018

By Erik Olsen

 

Today we are talking about catching the abundance raining down from the sky! Where I live we get 3 to 4 months of rain per year and a long 8-9-month dry spell. During the dry time of year water becomes scarce and here in California drought has been prevalent for years. This is why capturing the rain from the roof of houses, barns and other structures can be an incredible way to catch in store some of the resource of the rainy season’s abundance.

In this video, I’ll take you through my home rainwater catchment right after it was set up. We will follow the path of water from where it gets collected off the roof, to the conveyance system, to a transfer tank, and finally pumped to a 10,000-gallon storage system high on the landscape. I can’t tell you how good it feels to have that 10,000 gallons of water security at the height of summer. 

Catch your rain!

Erik
https://erikohlsen.com