It is best to put your backyard bin directly on the soil and out of the direct sun. Placing it on the soil (instead of concrete) allows decomposers easy access to the pile. Direct sun can dry out a pile and require more careful monitoring of the moisture. Over time the sun can also damage the integrity of a plastic bin. Most important is to place your bin in a convenient location that allows for easy access and use.
This slide show demonstrates how to remove your lawn using sheet mulching techniques.
This model garden design includes: concept plan, planting and irrigation plan and annotated plant list.
The owners of this property wanted to transform their front lawn into a beautiful and productive garden that would allow them to engage neighbors. Gardeners both, the owners enjoy doing maintenance themselves and wanted to incorporate edibles and native plants.
This model garden design includes: concept plan, planting plan, and irrigation plan.
This Dublin home's south-facing lawn provides little privacy or shade and needs a lot of water. Georgia Madden suggests replacing the lawn with an array of climate appropriate native plants. By varying the size, color, and seasonal color of the shrubs, her design screens the house from the street, and creates the illusion of depth in this narrow yard. A new path from the street emphasizes the home's entry. A Strawberry tree complements the faade of the house, while providing privacy inside.
This model garden design includes: concept plan, planting plan, irrigation plan, and plant list.
This Fremont home's front and back yards had large expanses of water-intensive turf. By replacing much of the lawn with native meadow grasses, Michael Thilgen preserves the yard's usable open space while adding more intimate spaces and layering plantings to create more interesting views from inside the home. Two large oaks anchor the front yard, framing the house and path to the entry.
Composting reduces waste and builds healthy soil to support local food production and protect against the impacts of extreme weather, from droughts to heavy rainfall.
The College of Alameda, one of four Peralta Community Colleges, renovated its campus entry landscaping as part of its Sustainable Peralta campaign. The new entry landscape makes a visible statement about the College's commitment to environmental stewardship and signifies a move away from traditional resource-intensive landscape designs.
Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape projects can earn innovation credits by including Bay-Friendly educational signage.
Use this model specification language to require that a project be built as a Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape. The spec language defines Bay-Friendly and lists submittal requirements. Using this spec language earns innovation credits in the Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape rating system.
