On May 15th, we installed three edible gardens at three locations in Petaluma in the course of a “progressive gardening party.”  The first location was a patio garden with several containers, the second location was a back yard with a raised bed and fruit trees, and the third location was a sheet mulching project and raised bed installation that buried some thirsty lawn. Photos below:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

This effort will save water, help expand our local food system, feed the hungry, and fight climate change (20% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions are from pumping water and the average meal travels 2,000 miles to reach our plates – that’s a lot of carbon). People installed gardens all over Sonoma County on this weekend and more than 450 gardens were registered. The goal was 350 because 350 is an important number in the world—it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (in parts per million).  Over the course of that weekend, the following was accomplished across the county:

• Tens of thousands of square feet of lawn was sheet mulched
• Workshops took place around the county on topics like ecological design, rain gardens, drip irrigation, natural building, greywater, raised bed construction.
• Thousands of dollars worth of supplies were distributed to garden projects

Collectively, we installed:

• Over a hundred wine barrel “salsa gardens” in low-income households
• Two laundry-to-landscape greywater systems
• A container garden at the board of supervisors’ office
• 628 new or revitalized gardens across Sonoma County in a single weekend

Our congregation is using the Edible Yardworks demonstration garden at Bounty Farm at 55 Shasta Ave. in Petaluma to grow food which will be donated to COTS homeless shelter.  On Sunday, May 16th we planted some additional vegetables at the site and discussed the techniques that are being showcased at the garden.  Donations have already commenced and members of UUP have been chipping in to water and deliver food. Special thanks to Jan Crosby, Jodi Boyle, Berkley Sturgeon and Kelly Brisbois for watering, Marlene Abel for coordinating kids on planting seeds and painting flower pots, and to James and Harriet Coyne for harvesting food and delivering it to the COTS kitchen.

THE 350 GARDEN CHALLENGE: ANTHEM (client cut) from TINBIKE on Vimeo.