Padan Elementary
About the Padan Elementary Garden
Our first successful joint venture with the Vacaville Unified School district, this project allowed Solano Gardens to provide Padan Elementary with a number of plants and small fruit trees to expand their existing two garden beds. We were able to utilize nearly 4,000 square feet to create a robust and varied garden. The educators at Padan had already added a Monarch Waystation, and were maintaining two raised beds and a number of fabric pots with some plants. There was also a memorial rose garden near the garden space. Solano Gardens was able to mulch and burlap most of the garden space and introduced the campus to the idea of varied “levels” in the garden (e.g. ground cover, shrubs, fruit trees) working together.
Padan Elementary School in VUSD worked with Sustainable Solano to develop a food forest out of a dilapidated orchard. We connected the orchard, the school’s monarch waystation, and an existing memorial garden together with edible plants and California natives. This site incorporates roof water capture and is already being incorporated into Padan’s various science programs. An additional fruit tree was added (mulberry), 3 shrubs, and 6 herbs, plus two types of perennial veggies (artichoke and asparagus) were planted at Padan.
City:
Vacaville
Space in production:
450 square feet
Estimated food production:
338 lbs. per year
Established:
May 2024
Design
