Soil Resources

Soil Contamination & Mitigation Toolkit

Learn different ways to test your soil for everything from nutrients to heavy metals in our toolkit.

Sheet Mulching:

Interested in building soil through layering cardboard, compost and wood chips? Find out how in this post from the California Native Plant Society.

Compost:

Enrich your soil naturally, prevent erosion, conserve water, close the loop, save money and fight global warming by composting and using compost in your garden. It’s perfect for farms, vineyards, gardens, yards and landscaping projects!

Compost with Soil Microbes:

Compost that is tested to ensure healthy soil microbes.

 

Organic Soil Products and Amendments:

Natural and organic soil products can include potting soils, coco coir bricks, worm castings, bokashi, pumice, compost tea and liquid and dry microbial products.

  • Harmony Organics (Benicia): 707-747-5051 [Mention Sustainable Solano when placing your order, and we’ll receive a donation for each purchase in your honor!]

 

Wood Chips:

Using wood chip mulch in your garden is a great way to prevent water evaporation and build healthy soil!

Get to Know & Nurture Your Soil

Videos and Articles:

Books

  • The Hidden Half of Nature, Anne Bikle and David Montgomery

  • Gaia’s Garden, Toby Hemenway

  • Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva

  • Ecological Medicine, Didi Pershouse

  • For the Love of Soil, Nicole Masters

  • Secrets to Great Soil, Elizabeth Stell

  • Bokashi Composting, Adam Footer

Materials

Resources provided by Vital Cycles & Soilogical

Solano Gardens Program Manager and certified Soil Food Web Lab Technician Michael Wedgley talks about the importance of healthy soil biology in this video. Learn why the right biology means never having to use fertilizers and pesticides for the healthiest garden!

 

CompostGal’s Lori Caldwell goes through the basics of composting in this video. Learn how to start a compost pile and maintain it for the best outcome. Lori also offers some tips and tricks for getting the most out of your finished compost!

Here are her resources:

Did you see the Kiss the Ground film on how healthy soil could be the cure for climate change? Learn more in this discussion on the important role of regenerative agriculture with Matthew Engelhart, who uses regenerative practices at Be Love Farm in Vacaville, and his son, Ryland Engelhart, who is co-founder and executive director of the Kiss the Ground nonprofit and a producer of the film.

 

Learn about the benefits of no-till gardening for your soil and your plants. Rachel Brinkerhoff of Dog Island Farm and Grow a Pear Nursery led this informative class on seasonal gardening and no-till practices.

Find additional resources on no-till practices here!

 

Learn how to create an edible, waterwise food forest garden in this series of short, informative videos, including sheet mulching and healthy soil! You can also find the videos individually here.

Saving the Planet One Gardener at a Time – a video with Dave Phelps presenting actionable takeaways and information about soil ecology, irrigation retrofitting and general sustainable landscape practices. An event hosted by Sustainable Solano as part of its Sustainable Landscaping and Sustainable Initiatives.
In this video Dan from http://www.plantabundance.com shares with you his thoughts and experiences in regards to using plain brown non-glossy cardboard in the garden as a sheet mulch.
This video demonstrates how to remove your lawn using sheet mulching techniques. Learn more at www.LawntoGarden.org
Watch the process for how compost is made on the community scale from yard trimmings, grape pomace, food scraps and other organic material in this video from the city of Napa.

Napa Compost Process from Filmmaker on Vimeo.