Solano County middle and high school students and their teachers are being asked to “Imagine a Day Without Water”- this year’s theme for the 2018 Water Awareness Video Contest, sponsored by the Solano County Water Agency and local water utilities. Participating students and teachers will have the chance to win up to $1,500 in cash by creating an original 60-second Public Service Announcement video on a variety of water efficiency topics, highlighting actions that can be taken each day to use water more wisely.
Solano County teachers who sponsor multiple students will receive an additional incentive of Amazon gift cards.
The contest is open to middle school and high school students in Solano County. Submissions will judged on entertainment value, originality, videography, style and organization, audio/sound, movie content and accuracy. The deadline to enter is Wednesday, April 11, 2018.
Attendees of our June home composting workshop learned great tips on how to turn yard trimmings and kitchen scraps into rich, healthy soil for their gardens using simple composting methods, including the use of earthworms. The class gathered at one of the beautiful and productive Benicia Demonstration Food Forests where there were plenty of inspiring surrounding examples of the roll that healthy, live soil plays in a flourishing and thriving garden.
The workshop was led by local permaculture and landscape expert, Kathleen Huffman,who helped connect the dots between soil health, plant health, and human health through an informative presentation and hands-on demonstration for creating various types of small composting areas in residential environments. A study of soil conditions at various stages within the garden and solutions to common concerns about space constraints, rodents and foul smells were addressed. Attendees learned directly how to best manage soil health, the easy way, and how healthy soil should look like for best results in the garden.
This workshop is part of Sustainable Solano’s “Healthy Soil, Healthy Planet” educational series offered in partnership with Republic Services. Republic Services will be sponsoring three additional soil workshops this year. The next one is September 9th. Please visit our calendar for details and future dates.
For the past two years we’ve been working on our Demonstration Food Forests, with a major component of it being Wise Water use. Now, with the help of Constance Beutel, videographer extraordinaire, we wanted to share with everyone how very simple and replicable it is. Greywater workshops and installation workshops are always being offered. Please check our Events or contact Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Manager, for more information.
Heather Pierini, Landscape Architecture student at UC Davis and Birds, Bees & Beyond Food Forest Keeper, speaks on camera
Over the weekend, Sustainable Solano, with our wonderful Constance Beutel as camera-woman and director, shot scenes for a Water-Wise documentary video. The video was shot at Birds, Bees & Beyond, one of the Demonstration Food Forests, with commentary from Executive Director Elena Karoulina, Sustainable Landscaping Advisory Board Member Kathleen Huffman, and food forest keeper Heather Pierini.
Sometimes pictures tell a story better than a thousand words. This might be the case – the film shows the three components of our Wise Water approach – rainwater collection in the ground, roofwater diversion to the ground and L2L greywater. You’ll be able to see how these systems were put together and an amazing difference this secondary water makes in this garden. We will use the film for training, presentation, and inspiration. Stay tuned for its release!
Sustainable Solano would like to share a video that a friend, Kristian, made! It certainly highlights the most meaningful moments and makes us reflect on how moving of an experience this was for us.
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
