Yggdrasil Garden

Mar 28, 2024

Yggdrasil Garden

Food Forest Keepers: Heidi & Dave

An evolving food forest garden and greywater system installed as part of Sustainable Solano’s 2022-23 Permaculture Design Certificate course. Yggdrasil is the “world tree,” the Norse tree of life, an eternal green ash that reaches into the three realms and connects the nine worlds.

PDC students transformed the front yard with a rain-capturing swale and planted berms in holistic workshops infused with music and spirit. The west side yard’s raised vegetable bed and passionfruit vines are watered by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system and include edible plants and native pollinators. The monarch butterfly-hosting back gardens are designed and maintained by permaculture designer Michael Wedgley’s Soilogical, nurtured with specially prepared compost, and supported by Seth Wright’s Water Service Irrigation design created as part of a Sustainable Solano irrigation class.

An herb spiral was created with bricks repurposed from the chimney of the circa 1850s historic home, retaining walls from pieces of historic on-site stables, and patios from slate and brick on-site. The east side yard (in development) is watered with both a rain-capturing swale and a laundry-to-landscape system and will have an aquatic garden and feature scented contributions to the edible landscape. 

The homes are designed for the vines from the garden to climb the railing trellises, blurring the lines between the indoors and out. The focus on the symbiosis of 19th century natural eco-architecture with 21st century technology is intended to reinforce the mindfulness of permaculture consciousness.

Site Details

Installation Date:

September 2022-February 2023

Size:

650 square feet (front yard PDC project)

Sun Exposure:

6-8 hours

Soil:

Clay

Number of Swales:

3

Secondary Water:

Rainwater

Roof water diverted to swales

Laundry-to-landscape greywater

Total Annual Water Impact:

32,749 gallons (for PDC site; the larger garden has a larger water impact)

Plant List:

 

Cherry (Stella), Apple (Anna), Hazelnut, Persimmon, Apricot, Fig, Passionfruit Guava, Meyer Lemon

Ceanothus (Ray Hartman), Blueberry, Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), Huckleberry

Strawberry, Borage, Yarrow, Comfrey, Calendula, Pacific Coast Iris, Heuchera, Acanthus (Bear’s Breech)

This project was funded through the Solano Sustainable Backyards program and the second amendment to the Valero/Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement, Benicia Adult Education, and student fees.

Redwood Guild

Apr 2, 2023

Redwood Guild

Food Forest Keepers: Chris and Megan

This food forest garden and greywater system were installed as part of Sustainable Solano’s 2021 Permaculture Design Certificate course, with students transforming the front lawn with rain-capturing swales and planted berms and converting the sprinkler system to drip irrigation. The side yard is watered by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system and also includes edible plants and native pollinators. This home has its own redwood grove, and certain plants were selected that do well in the unique conditions created by redwoods. The food forest keepers are using that knowledge to add other plants to the garden that will thrive alongside the redwoods.

Site Details

Installation Date:

January-April 2021

Size:

1,040 square feet

Sun Exposure:

6-8 hours

Soil:

Clay

Number of Swales:

2

Secondary Water:

Rainwater

Roof water diverted to swales

Laundry-to-landscape greywater

Total annual water impact:

73,549 gallons

Plant List:

 

Cherry (Stella), Apple (Anna), Hazelnut

Ceanothus (Ray Hartman), Blueberry, Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), Huckleberry

Strawberry, Borage, Yarrow, Comfrey, Calendula, Pacific Coast Iris, Heuchera, Acanthus (Bear’s Breech)

PDC Slideshow

2021 Benicia PDC

This project was funded through the second amendment to the Valero/Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement, Benicia Adult Education, and student fees.

Giardino su una Colina (Garden on a Hill)

May 5, 2020

Giardino su una Colina (Garden on a Hill)

Food Forest Keepers: Annina and Dean

Coming Soon

Site Details

Installation Date:

February 2020

Size:

1,900 square feet

Sun Exposure:

6-8 hours

Soil:

Clay

Number of Swales:

2

Secondary Water:

Rainwater

Roof water diverted to swales

Total annual water impact:

96,377 gallons

Design:

Designer: Shawn Carter and Maleik Dion / Resilient Solutionaries

 

Plant List:

 

Kadota Fig, Meyer Lemon

Dark Star Ceanothus, Coffeeberry, Blueberry; Artichoke; Feverfew; Rosemary; Lavender; Native Elderberry

Salvia apiana; Monardella villosa; Strawberries; Chicory; Chamomile; Borage; Thyme; Alyssum; Artemesia vulagre (mugwart); Muhlenbergia rigens; Dill; Echinacea; Yarrow; White Clover

Installation:

Coming Soon

Vision for the Future:

Coming Soon

Giardino su una Colina Slideshow

2020 Liberty High Caretakers

This project was funded through the second amendment to the Valero/Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement and support from Republic Services.

Wild Cherry Way

Mar 6, 2020

Wild Cherry Way

Food Forest Keeper: Suzanne

For most of my childhood, my family lived in an apartment building in Chicago. I spent a lot of time looking out at the world from my bedroom window on the 20th floor. Despite that distance between me and the earth, I always had a great love of being in nature and a strong personal connection with the elements and creatures of the world. I especially loved spending time alone outside, observing and learning.

My formal study of plants and garden design began in San Francisco when I was in my 40s and discovered an organization called S.L.U.G. (San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners). They distributed compost containers, promoted community gardens and provided training on how to make compost.

After volunteering as a community composter for about six months, I signed up for their Green Gardener training program. By the time that ended, I was on fire for gardening! I wanted to learn more, so I continued my studies at San Francisco City College. I studied horticulture, native plants and ecology. Eventually, I changed careers and started working at a plant nursery. Later, I worked for some small landscaping design companies, while continuing my studies in horticulture and landscape design at Merritt College. I also had my own small maintenance business
in the East Bay for several years.

When I moved to Benicia a few years ago, I was excited to see that one of my neighbors had posted a sign that said her garden was a permaculture garden created by Sustainable Solano. I was very happy to find that I was living among like-minded people. Last year, after I went on the Sustainable Solano garden tour, I decided to apply for the opportunity to have a well-designed permaculture garden at my house
too.

Site Details

Installation Date:

February 2020

Size:

1,922 square feet

Sun Exposure:

8 hours

Soil:

Clay

Number of Swales:

1

Secondary Water:

Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater System

Rainwater

Roof water diverted to swales

Total annual water impact:

32,944 gallons

Design:

Designer: Lauren Bennett

 

Plant List:

 

Fuyu Persimmon, Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Peach

Baker’s Manzanita, Blueberry (Sharp Blue, Jubilee, Reveille), California Lilac (Dark Star), Cleveland Sage, Coffeeberry, Lavender, Mexican Marigold, Rose, Rosemary, White Sage

Alyssum, Borage, California Buckwheat, California Poppy, Comfrey, Coyote Mint, Deargrass, Mugwort, Narrow Leaf Milkweed, Oregano, Plumbago, Purple Coneflower, Showy Milkweed, Thyme, Tree Collard

Chamomile, Strawberry

Garlic

Passionflower, Roger’s Red Grape

Installation:

Over a period of two months, on Saturdays, my yard was transformed. Sometimes, there were a dozen people at my house and on three Saturdays, there were more than 30 people! We completed three different phases of the work over that time.

At first, I met with a small group of students and a permaculture garden designer to discuss my vision and my wants for the garden. Once the design and plant list were complete, we invited a large group of interested volunteers to join in to dig swales, move plants, sheet mulch and put down compost. On one Saturday, we had a group of volunteers who learned how to install a laundry-to-landscape irrigation system. At the beginning of each large group session, there was a presentation about the philosophy and the science of the work that would be done that day.

When hearing about the plan for the two-month installation process, I was a little apprehensive. Since I’m a bit of a hermit, I wondered what it would be like to have so many people at my house. It turned out to be a wonderful experience! The people who came to the trainings all shared an interest in sustainable living. And, even though some people were experienced gardeners, while others were beginners, we found we had a lot in common. We had great conversations together, shared our knowledge, and made decisions together about many of the aspects of the installation.

It was a fun, energizing and educational experience. The public days, when there were 30 people working together, felt something like an old-fashioned barn raising. There was so much enthusiasm and comraderie, as we shared food and jokes and lots of hard work.

Vision for the Future:

My house is 160 years old. It’s one of the oldest houses in Benicia. When it was first built, it was a dairy farm and there are remnants of the cows’ stalls in the basement. Since it’s on the historical register, development of the property is limited, so the house and land have remained unchanged in many ways. Knowing about the house’s history has given me a strong sense of place. I recognize the privilege I have of being one of the guardians of this land.

When I moved to Benicia, it was with the intention of creating a sanctuary for myself and for the creatures that live on and around my property. I wanted to preserve a feeling of wildness in my yard. My goal was to make a safe, reliable resting place that would provide lots of opportunities to find food, water and habitat. I planted mostly low-water, low-maintenance plants, including many pollinator attractors and medicinal herbs. Eventually, I plan to invite small groups of children to my garden for fun and education.

Although parts of my garden were already well-established, the installation by Sustainable Solano took things to another level. My new garden has many complex layers of life. Before we started planting, the weeds were suppressed with cardboard and the soil was nourished with a thick layer of compost. We dug a deep swale to capture and store water underground. Many beautiful food-producing plants were added. Each new fruit tree was planted with a guild of supportive plants surrounding it, and I now have three sources of water: from the rooftop, from the laundry and from the irrigation valve.

A large area of my garden is shaded by a huge, old, wild cherry tree. Its branches droop so low that you can touch them when you walk by. The feeling of being sheltered and protected by the tree makes me think of it as the mother of my garden. The wild cherry supports so much life: squirrels, scrub jays, ravens, mourning doves, robins, bumblebees, hummingbirds and more all find food and shelter in its branches.

My wish is that my garden will become as nurturing as my cherry tree is by supporting an abundance of life, by providing shelter and food, and by offering beauty and peace to all those who visit.

Wild Cherry Way Slideshow

Wild Cherry Way

Living and Learning

May 1, 2017

Living and Learning

Benicia Sustainable Backyard

Food Forest Keepers: Stacy and Leslie

When we searching for a house in Benicia after moving from Vermont, it was the amazing yard that sold us to buy this particular house. We had been gardeners in Vermont (with it’s intense but short growing season) and wanted to pursue that here, but the thought of fixing and maintaining our broken down 12- zone huge irrigation system seemed so against the nature of living in a State that is almost always in a drought- so we turned it off and waited to see what would happen. It has actually naturalized and adjusted quite well, and we did small annual, perennial and container planting over the years. What we never could decide on was a vision: something that incorporated our beliefs about our environment and brought together stewardship, conservation, and a belief that there was a way to create lush landscaping that went beyond form: something functional and productive. Meeting and chatting with the Sustainable Food Forest folks one night was a revelation and the Living and Learning Garden was born. The process of applying and getting ready for the installation was truly an adventure: we really had no idea what would actually happen as there is not exactly a set of manuals and a long history in Benicia for this. What we did have was trust, which sustained us through the rain delays and uncertainty. What we have now is an amazing transformed space- both in the front and side of the house that is growing beyond our original hope. The challenges of taking the seed plot so graciously created by the community, and expanding both the content and the skills needed to develop it are what really excite us. The joy of picking the raspberries and strawberries, tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, and flowers has really transformed our interaction and appreciation of our outdoor spaces. And the kids love it!

Site Details

Installation Date:

April 2016

Size:

1800 square feet

Sun Exposure:

6-8 hours

Soil:

Clay

Number of Swales:

2

Secondary Water:

Lawn Conversion

Rainwater

Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater System

Roofwater Diverted to Swales

Total annual water impact:

90,656 gallons

Design:

Designer: David Mudge

Plant List:

Almond, Apricot, Fig, Fuji Apple, Lemon, Pluot, Pomegranate
Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry
Borage, Comfrey, Lavendar, Lemon Balm, Leonitis, Parsley, Penstemon, Sage, Salvia, Yarrow
Clovers, Nasturtium, Strawberries
Beets, Sunchoke
Grapes

Installation:

The installations were truly an exercise in faith in community. We had several significant rain delays (the irony of too much natural water did not escape us) making the yard unworkable. Our trust in Elena and David (and the Greywater Alliance) were what sustained us, since we just couldn’t imagine why a bunch of people we didn’t know would spend a day digging and getting dirty (and on the greywater day, extremely muddy!). But come they did, and the breakfast sessions and lunch tables with all those helping folks are a reason that we feel joy and magic every time we step in our garden. Everyone worked incredibly hard, with constant problem- solving, consultation and cooperation the order of the day(s), kids and adults alike. And while we will enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of these labors for years to come, what was really planted was a connection to this community.

Vision for the Future:

Having toured other gardens that have matured and developed, we know we have a long way to go. We are not sure what we enjoy most, the garden itself, the delicious yield from the installation, or the joy and anticipation we have pushing our gardening skills and visions far beyond what we ever imagined. We hope that in a few years we will have transformed far more of our garden, now that we know how. We hope that others watching our garden become so productive are inspired to jump off that cliff. We envision eventually even having boxes on the street to share the bounty with our neighbors.