Pollinator Food Forest Garden Coming to Suisun Wildlife Center

May 31, 2018

Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Backyard program expanded to Suisun City earlier this spring and is now celebrating the completion of a public demonstration food forest garden at a private Suisun residence. The program offers informative workshops and inspiring talks on sustainable landscape design, community resilience and permaculture.

On Saturday, June 9th and Sunday, June 10th, community members are invited to help create a thriving ecosystem for pollinators, such as birds, bees, and butterflies, at Suisun Wildlife Center (SWC). This custom demonstration garden will focus on year-round pollinator plants and habitat for wildlife and will be fed primarily through secondary water sources such as roofwater diverted to swales. SWC is a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue of native California wildlife to ensure that birds and animals receive the best possible care.

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn hands-on how to build a proper foundation for a permaculture food forest, how to increase water-holding capacity in the ground, tips for building healthy soil in the garden and basic permaculture design principles that can be applied at home for self-sustaining, food-producing gardens all year-round.

Thank you to Vice Mayor, Lori Wilson, for coordinating lunch with local eateries on both days.

Workshop Dates:

Saturday, June 9th (Installation Day 1:) Laying the foundation: digging on contour swales, making berms and diverting the roof water to the landscape. Register here.

Sunday, June 10th (Installation Day 2): Creating habitat. Register here.

  • Planting a community of pollinator plants with multiple functions that support a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
  • Surface drip irrigation installation: Adding irrigation for young plants and water conservation.
  • Covering the food forest with free woodchips (mulch) to prevent water evaporation and improve soil health.

 

There will be yearly ongoing workshops and tours of these demonstration food forest gardens on private and public land in each city. This project is made possible by funding and support of the Solano County Water Agency

365 Days of Care!

May 18, 2018

By: Nicole Newell, Sustainable Backyard Program Manager

I am finding many Solano County treasures as our Sustainable Backyard Program expands. Suisun Wildlife Center is one of the jewels. Last weekend I learned first-hand the many incredible ways that this organization serves California native wildlife and the Suisun Marsh. I was invited on an educational walk through the area with Executive Director, Monique Liguori, leading this walk. She spoke about the Native American Suisunes tribe (also called the “People of the West Wind”), who lived in the Suisun Marsh regions of Solano County around 200 years ago, and the various plants they used.

One of the many diverse plants that was showcased was the tule rush. The Suisunes people built temporary homes, canoes and made clothing out of this plant. Since the tule rushes are biodegradable, every year these items had to be rebuilt. My head was filled with so many new facts about native plants in the marsh. I even got to taste salty pickleweed!

Not only does the Suisun Wildlife Center protect and educate the public about the Suisun Marsh, but they also rescue and care for California native wildlife. The ultimate goal is to release the wildlife back into its environment. Due to the extent of animal injury, resident raptors and a coyote cannot be released and need year-round care. Kris, Monique and many other committed volunteers gently care for these young and injured animals 365 days a year!

Currently they are taking care of:
20 baby oppossums
30 song birds
7 baby raccoons
6 baby squirrels
1 adult barn owl

This spring, Monique has gently cared for nine baby hummingbirds. These sensitive creatures eat every 15 minutes from sun up to sun down and will only eat if the feeder are in a balanced state of mind while feeding them. The dedication of Suisun Wildlife Center has inspired our Sustainable Backyard program to think about the importance of serving wildlife when designing demonstration gardens. In June, we will be installing a food forest that is focused on providing food to our precious pollinators.

Thank you Kris and Suisun Wildlife Center for all that you do!

“A Growing Future” in Suisun City

Mar 30, 2018

One private yard in Suisun City has been selected for the installation of a demonstration food forest garden as part of Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Backyard program offering informative workshops and inspiring talks on sustainable landscape design, community resilience, permaculture, and local food systems. The first of three public installation workshops will be held on Saturday, April 7th, at a private Suisun residence, where community members can help create the foundation of an edible ecosystem fed by secondary water sources such as greywater (laundry-to-landscape system) and roofwater. This workshop will focus on digging swales, making birms, diverting roofwater and planting fruit trees to increase water-holding capacity and building healthy soil in the garden.

Selected homeowner, Cassandra, a resident of Suisun City for over 21 years and passionate about growing food and healthy eating, was looking to replace her lawn with a more sustainable landscape that her family could eat from. This led her to apply to have her yard transformed into a steady, water-retaining food source that would not only increase resilience but catch the attention of lawn owners lining her neighborhood streets. “This project will help secure a source of local food for my family with a surplus to share with the community”, Cassandra said. The family has named the garden, “A Growing Future”.

Through this project, she will be joining a growing family of “food forest keepers” in Solano County that have committed to opening their demonstration food forest gardens for the public to learn about simple sustainable landscape techniques and ways to use water more wisely to grow food.

Her yard was selected among four other Suisun City homeowner applicants. The selection process for these sites are based on criteria such as yard access, greywater feasibility and sun orientation. Sites are assessed and selected by Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Landscaping Advisory Board made up of dedicated Solano County residents aiming to raise sustainability awareness in Solano County.

The garden will take three full days to complete and all installation events are free and open to the community. There will be yearly ongoing workshops and tours of these demonstration food forest gardens on private and public land in each city.  This project is made possible by funding and support of the Solano County Water Agency.

Registration is required for these FREE hands-on workshops. Visit our calendar to register.

 The Sustainable Backyard and Conversations program will expand to Vacaville in the fall of 2018.  Visit www.sustainablesolano.org and www.facebook.com/sustainablesolano for updates and details about this expansion.

 

Sustainable Solano seeks ‘food forest’ applicants in Suisun

Feb 10, 2018

By 

SUISUN CITY — If you live in Suisun City and want to turn your yard into a thriving, edible ecosystem, Sustainable Solano would like to hear from you.

The grassroots local nonprofit that started in Benicia is expanding its work to Suisun City and is looking for homeowners interested in creating demonstration “seed plot” food forests in their backyards.

Sustainable Solano will be taking applications through March 16 and will visit each applicant’s site before making a selection sometime in late March.

What is called a permaculture food forest would include using rainwater and gray water from the laundry, a drip irrigation system and sheet mulch. The plants would include fruit trees, berries and plants that are beneficial to insects.

Both the owner and a cadre of volunteers would spend four weekends putting in the food forest whose layout would be cooperatively designed by the homeowner and Sustainable Solano.

The goal is to create between an 1,800- and 2,000-square-foot “oasis of productivity and beauty to nourish you and inspire others,” according to the application that’s available online.

In return for Sustainable Solano helping set up the food forest, the homeowners would be expected to make a five-year commitment to take care of it and open it to the public twice a year as part of an annual garden tour.

“You definitely have to have a green thumb,” Sustainable Solano Executive Director Elena Karoulina said.

Sustainable Solano started in 2016 when supporters of Benicia Community Gardens changed the name as part of its goal to inspire and help the rest of the county to locally grow, regionally source, cook and enjoy healthy food.

The group set up two private gardens and a public one in Vallejo in 2017 and more recently started gardens in Fairfield at Mission Solano, Suisun Valley Elementary School and a private home. They are now looking for one public and one private location in Suisun City and plan to start a similar effort in Vacaville and Dixon later this year.

The group hosted a forum Saturday with author and permaculture expert Denise Rushing and plans a sustainable landscape class at 6 p.m. Thursday at The Salvation Army’s Kroc Center at 586 E. Wigeon Way.

For more information and the application, go to www.SustainableSolano.org.