Apr 7, 2017
Often times you find the solution within the problem. We couldn’t find one yard to fit all our educational needs of the demonstration food forest. So with the creative use of our limited funds we will be installing two! The Enchanted Cottage Garden is the perfect front yard location. This yard that is now grass will be sheet mulched and transformed into a food forest. The unique roof of this cottage style home will serve as a great educational opportunity to show how to retrofit gutters to harvest roof water.
The problem is that it can’t receive grey water.
The Ripple Effect which already has many components of a food forest, fruit trees, perennial vegetables, plants that attract the beneficial insects, rain water harvest, artistic/creative use of onsite materials in both the front and backyard. Grey water will be able to be used to water an already existing landscape! This is a great site to show how to add community of plants to support the trees that already exist in our yard!! We will also be installing one fruit tree guild here adding another opportunity to show roof water catchment.
Installation of The Enchanted Cottage Garden will begin on April 29th this day will be hands on learning about setting the basic foundation: swales, berms, roof water harvest, creative use of onsite materials. May 13th will be a day filled with learning about the food forest plants chosen. We will get to have conversations about plant communities working together to benefit each other. Water efficient, basic drip irrigation will also be installed that day. Sheet mulching will be done and the transformation of a lawn into a custom demonstration food forest will be revealed.
May 6th will be spent at The Ripple Effect. The public will get an opportunity to see what can be done with an already existing landscape. This will be a hands-on laundry to landscape grey water workshop. The grey water will be used to water a pre-existing landscape. As a community we will be learning to install one simple fruit tree guild and show diversion of roof water to a swale. We will also talk about what plants could be added to support the existing landscape.
All three days April 29, May 6, and May 13 will be filled with learning about sustainable landscapes through hands-on experience and include a lunch provided by the homeowners!!! Come learn how to save water, grow food and build community!! Registration is required.
April 29th Registration
May 6th Registration
May 13th Registration
Mar 1, 2017
It was a cool and sunny day for the Greyhawk Grove Tour, and perhaps it was that, or that our tour is gathering steam, that nearly 30 people squeezed into a room to listen to Lydia Neilsen from the Regenerative Design Institute. She started with a brief overview of permaculture design principles: people care, earth care–and then dove straight into practical, simple applications to one’s garden, covering hands-on details of creating swales (or as someone coined them, “Magical ditches”), appreciating weeds and the natural succession of plant life, and mimicking that healthy ecosystem balance in tree and plant guilds. She fielded questions about greywater, and, noting that several Food Forest Keepers were in attendance, had them field questions as well. Attendees remarked on on simple, clear, and practical her talk was.
The overflowing group then spilled out into the demonstration food forest itself, were Lydia pulled up a giant fava bean to show the group the roots and speak about cover crops, nitrogen fixation and soil health. She also ate a nodule, declaring it tasted like peanuts and offered it to anyone who wanted to try. They were able to see the laundry-to-landscape switch and pipes, look at the greywater basins, the rainwater pipes that flowed straight into the two swales, how the natural slope and chicken coop was incorporated into the planning, and snuggle up the free range chickens who were milling about. “We used to have one of these at the farm,” said the farm director of Loma Vista Farms after she cuddled up a polish chicken–known for a mop of feathers on top of its head that looks like punk-rocker hair. “We used to call it our Tina Turner chicken. But now the kids don’t get the reference. I guess rockstar chicken still works.”
It was a rockstar day all around. And we look forward to the next stop in the tour–stop #6, “The Curious Garden.”
For more information and to register for “The Curious Garden”, please go here.
Feb 27, 2017
Nicole Newell, Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager and a graduate of our Land Caretakers program.
Do you want to learn how to get involved with Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Landscaping program?
This series of events is designed to prepare a group of volunteers to help implement Vallejo Sustainable Backyard program. If you are interested to become a part of this movement in Vallejo, please plan on attending one of the landscaping classes (link), a L2L hands-on workshop in Benicia and this training/ potluck at the house of Nicole and Jason. This training is mandatory for people applying for a food forest. We’ll offer another short series at the end of March.
From 5:30 to 8pm on March 3rd, Land Caretaker program graduates, Jason and Nicole, are hosting a volunteer training/potluck dinner where they will share the basics of sustainable landscaping, while showing attendees their own evolving food forest and laundry-to-landscape greywater system. Jason and Nicole are passionate about Sustainable Landscaping, and both were inspired to further their skills and knowledge following the Land Caretaker’s training. Jason has since completed greywater installation training with Greywater Action to learn how to maximize secondary water use, and Nicole completed Toby Hemenway’s permaculture design course to acquire her Permaculture Design Certificate. They are excited to share their sustainable landscaping knowledge, and prepare interested volunteers and food forest keepers for the upcoming installations in Vallejo.
Jason and Nicole will provide vegetarian and hatch green chili pork taco’s, and request that attendees bring a side dish. It will be a fun opportunity to learn about sustainable landscaping, eat some delicious food, and meet people from your community. Please email Nicole if you are interested so she and Jason can plan to comfortably host everyone.
Please email nicole@sustainablesolano.org to get communications on location and event updates.
Feb 20, 2017
Do you own your home in Vallejo? Are you interested in living a more sustainable life? We are inviting you to consider becoming a demonstration food forest keeper! With the help of the community, we’ll convert your lawn, if applicable, and install a permaculture food forest and a laundry-to- landscape greywater system that will feed all the trees and bushes in your new garden!
Why permaculture food forest?
A 2,000 sq. ft.-lawn requires about 90,000 gallons of water a year. A mature 2,000 sq. ft. food forest needs about 20,000 gallons of water per year and not all of this water needs to come from the municipal source. Of this amount of water, our goal is to utilize as much free (rain) and secondary water. Rain water from your roof and greywater from your laundry will be diverted to the specially prepared mulch basins and swales in your garden – a system of ditches filled with mulch that will slow down and absorb into the soil every drop of water finding its way to your garden.
In Benicia, we have already transformed seven yards from lawns into luscious, thriving food forests utilizing secondary water (rainwater and greywater). You can come meet the team and tour three of these gardens on February 25, March 25 and April 22! Visit our events calendar to register.
Sustainable Solano is beginning the next stage of our Sustainable Backyard Program. We are now expanding into Vallejo.
What we will do
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.
Birds, Bees and Beyond, one of the original Benicia Sustainable Backyard Demonstration Food Forest Installations, Winter 2016
The installation of this demonstration food forest is sponsored by the Solano County Water Agency and is free to Vallejo homeowners. Your new garden will become a community educational center! Your responsibility will be to maintain the food forest (a list of sustainable landscapers in your area will be provided, if you need extra help), to enjoy plentiful harvest, and participate in future annual tours of Sustainable Solano landscapes.
Application Process
The application process starts on February 20, 2017 and goes until March 27, 2017. The installation will happen on three Saturdays in April-May. The homeowner must be available for these dates: April 22, 29, May 6, 13. At least one of the homeowners is required to attend the volunteer training. While we are particularly interested in highly visible front-yard lawns to convert, other types of landscape (up to 2,000 sq.ft.) are welcome to participate. We will visit all the applying households to evaluate their suitability for a permaculture food forest and a laundry-to- landscape greywater system.
Sustainable Solano Board and the Permaculture Advisory Board will make the final selection based on the proposed sites’ characteristics.
For more information, to see videos of the previous food forests installation and to apply, please visit www.sustainablesolano.org.
If you’re excited to start and already know you want to dive in, please review the Memorandum of Understanding and download the Application!
