Learn about the plots, the schedules for the days, the families involved, and dive in to our community installation event!
The future Vallejo Demonstration Food Forests
The Enchanted Cottage Garden
The Enchanted Cottage Garden is a water-sucking, plain lawn that wants to become so much more for its family and its neighborhood! Join us in sheet mulching the lawn (the quickest way to replace a lawn–and provides great nutrients for the garden too!), and learning about the permaculture design we have to install a food forest here, incorporating the needs of a family with children, and their love of canning.
The Ripple Effect
The Ripple Effect is a work in process, already sheet-mulched to remove a lawn, with creative materials re-use, fruit trees, people space and many edibles and pollinators. Join us in adding in the extra laundry-to-landscape element and planting a fruit tree guild to showcase and add the 7-layer permaculture food forest aspect to this space to help it, and its owner, realize its full potential.
Installation Day Schedules
Enchanted Cottage Garden – Day 1
- 9:00AM Registration with coffee and snacks
- 9:30AM-10:30AM Presentation of designs and concepts
- 10:30AM-12:00PM Creating groundwater retention and storage with swales
- 12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch, provided by the hosts
- 1:00PM-3:00PM Planting of fruit trees
- 3:00PM-4:00PM Sheet mulching the lawn
The Ripple Effect – Day 2
- 9:00AM Registration with coffee and snacks
- 9:30AM-11:00AM Presentation of designs and greywater concepts
- 11:00AM-1PM Split into two groups: Group 1 hands on pipe installation at laundry, Group 2 preparation of mulch basins and running lines to target plants in yard.
- 1:00PM-2:00PM Lunch, provided by the host
- 2:00PM-4:00PM Switch Group locations to finish inside/outside greywater so that everyone can have experience with the whole process
Enchanted Cottage Garden – Day 3
- 9:00AM Registration with coffee and snacks
- 9:30AM-10:30AM Presentation of designs and concepts
- 10:30AM-12:00PM Planting
- 12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch, provided by the hosts
- 1:00PM-4:00PM Drip Irrigation basics: learning about and testing water-efficient drip irrigation to plants
This is a rough schedule, which may change due to weather, location, and volunteer interests/questions!
About the Food Forest Keepers
Introducing Julie
Julie is the keeper at The Ripple Effect, with hopes that health and happiness will ripple out from her garden. When she bought her house 2.5 years ago, she had three goals: build the soil, plant a diverse plant community for a thriving ecosystem, and get rid of the grass! She’s got a ton of projects going on, such as perhaps converting a shed into a chicken coop, improving the vacant lot next door, a mushroom farm…and re-using water with a greywater system!
She dreams of a green, caring, diverse world. Inclusive, Thriving. A little bit more unplugged. Homemade music. Poetry. Block parties. Clean water. Clean Air. Oil-free lifestyles. Walkable welcoming farmed urban areas. Aesthetic beauty in downtown areas. GREAT affordable public transportation. Lots more ferries on the SF Bay: Vallejo to the East Bay as well as San Francisco. Front porch checker games. Kids playing in the streets and cars slowing down. Perhaps a labyrinth or two in every town…
Introducing Melissa and Steve & Family
Melissa, Steve and Maya (9) and Jacob (15)–shown in the picture–are the food forest keepers at Enchanted Cottage Garden. They have a small plot in the backyard with chickens, and have been wanting to grow more food for some time. They enjoy cooking and canning so would love a place for more herbs and veggies. They envision taking out the front lawn and putting in food plants and pollinators for insects.
They hope their yard will be a source of inspiration for others as well as a comfortable place for neighbors to gather. They live near a high school and kids often come by their house. They would like their own children to be more connected to nature. Melissa and Steve are lifelong Vallejoans and find it rewarding to give back to the community–through scouting, Participatory Budgeting, lemonade stands for pediatric cancer, and more. They are looking forward to welcoming the community to their come and combining the spirit of giving with their personal hobbies of cooking, canning, and chickens.
