On Sunday, April 2, as a part of the Benicia Sustainable Backyard program, about ten people gathered at a Benicia house for the final (for now) 2017 laundry-to-landscape hands-on greywater installation workshop. The host for the day was Mayor of Benicia Elizabeth Patterson, a supporter of sustainable use of water. There was a great group of participants from Vallejo and Benicia. A special group of attendees who had applied for the Vallejo Sustainable Backyard demonstration food came to learn both about greywater and about how the workshop was run as an educational experience.
The instructors from Greywater Action, Christina and Jessica, explained current regulation regarding greywater (you do not need a permit in California to install a simple, gravity-fed laundry to landscape system), and different parts of the system: the indoor – laundry three-way valve that will regulate the flow of laundry water to landscape, and the outdoor part – a pipe that will direct greywater to a few mulch basins placed next to the large trees in Elizabeth’s front yard. The group then split in two: half of the participants began installing a three-way valve, while the second half rolled out the water pipe and began digging. The groups changed places after lunch so everyone would get a hands-on experience on every aspect of installation. It took some tweaking and adjusting, but finally the water from the washing machine was flowing evenly to all mulch basins. Now this mature front-yard landscape has a reliable source of water, rain or shine!
Thank you, Mayor Patterson, for volunteering your house for a public workshop!
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.
Did you attend the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium in December? I did, and it woke me up. I was ready to see what was next, and signed up for the Pachamama Alliance’s 8 week Gamechanger Intensive program. The Gamechanger Intensive is an online class that you can access whenever you have free time. I started each day watching a video or reading an article that is beyond inspirational. One of my favorites included Annie Leonard and the Story of Stuff’s 20 minute video that will make you think about the true cost of things before you buy. Lynne Twist spoke on the politics of optimism and how people in despair almost never change anything.
It is clear to me that now is the time to deepen our values and, find connectivity with every single human being. Fierce LOVE is required at this time. We need each other. Together we are genius. These words inspire me to get out of my comfort zone and do what I know is right. I share the vision with the Pachamama Alliance. I too want an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet. To wake from the “American Dream” and create a New Dream for humanity. I used to think that I wasn’t smart enough or I that didn’t have anything to offer. Taking this class has helped me to get the courage to take action, in the way that feels most right to me–as Sustainable Landscaping Program Manager. I am currently doing tasks that are completely new to me (like blogging!) but I know stretching my comfort zone is worth it. If you are looking for ways to reflect, find each other, and be genius, check out the Pachamama Alliance website to learn more about the Gamechanger Intensive.
On Thursday, February 2, the Benicia Community Center provided a warm respite from the winter drizzle for curious gardeners getting ready for spring. Inside several ecologically minded citizens from all over Solano County, came to learn about Sustainable landscaping and water resource solutions from local landscaper Kathleen Huffman, owner of The RePurposed Okie. The presentation took the attendees on a guided tour of sustainable concepts, practices and design creation along with a discussion of secondary water resource management. Additional topics included lawn abatement rebates and how to prepare and apply them in various cities.
The main concepts of the sustainable landscape program start with the idea of “Earth care, People care and Fair share.” With these grounding principles in mind, Kathleen gave ideas and suggestions on how to apply them to your own yard in quick, easy, and cost effective ways. A discussion of design elements included examples of how to get the most of each square foot of garden space using “Guild” planting practices.
The water resource management discussion covered the basics of using secondary water. Examples of secondary water included ground swales, rainwater catchment and installing a simple greywater system. Simple swale examples were shown and the class was given formulas to calculate the amount of water savings the homeowner could expect. The greywater presentation covered regulation, design and expected cost. An example of a greywater 3-way valve setup was shown to the class to better explain the components and how the system attaches to the homeowners washing machine.
In ending, the current lawn abatement rebate program was discussed and attendees were given the necessary applications and were given time to discuss the specifics of their own lawn and garden concerns.
It seemed that all the gardeners left with a spark in them to give their gardens a “sustainable” make-over and looking at ways to “plant” more water on their property. Happy gardening!
If you are interested in attending these FREE classes in Vallejo or Benicia, there are more coming up through April. Please check Sustainable Solano’s calendar and register through the Greater Vallejo Recreation District or Benicia Community Center.
As Sustainable Solano continues our work throughout the county, the question we often get is “What does sustainable mean?” We continue our exploration into our mission, our focus, and what it means to be sustainable with our third installation of the conversation: a United Nations perspective.
In 2015 the United Nations published their “Sustainable Development Goals”, a roadmap of 17 goals to focus on for the next 15 years. It was “a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.” It sounded very close to our goal to “promote ecologically sustainable, economically and socially just communities, a world that works for everyone.”
Perhaps in naming their call to action, they meant the same thing as we did with “sustainable”. But one doesn’t have to guess, this is the United Nations, after all. They defined what they meant by sustainable development as “achieving economic, environmental, and social development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.'” What does that look like? Delving deeper, we find that the goals focus on areas such as “climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.”
Sustainability is not just focused on climate change, not just focused on green energy, not just focused on social justice and peace, not just focused on the environment, not just on equality, not just on waste and sustainable consumption, but the also on the fundamental assertion that these goals are interconnected. In strengthening one area, you strengthen the other. We deeply agree with that, and want to submit another part of the definition: sustainable is a system that is not only ecologically, economically, and socially just, but one that is regenerative and self-renewing generation after generation. We don’t just meet our present needs without compromising future needs, but leave the world better than how we found it, for a next generation that can also hope to do the same. But we don’t have to go to the United Nations to do that. We are already here, where we want to be–in Solano County.
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.
