Castro Valley Library - Green Building and Bay-Friendly Landscaping Case Study
1537 Webster Street: A Green Renovation in Downtown Oakland
Read all about how we put our green building and Bay-Friendly Landscaping know-how to work when we renovated an old building in Oakland to create a healthy, energy efficient new office. The project was the first renovated building in the country to earn LEED Platinum certification, the highest rating in the LEED Green Building Rating System.
Garden Profile: Reuse and Renovation in an Oakland Garden
Grant Minix and Michael Geltz are such good recyclers that they only take out a single bag of garbage once a month. The waste-not ethic so evident inside the house has also been put to work outside it, where Minix and Geltz have built a happy, opportunistic garden from reclaimed materials.
Year-Round Local Resources
The following lists can help you find resources and get tips from other gardeners:
Mulch Calculator
This calculator can help you determine how much mulch and compost you'll need for your sheet mulching project, whether you're establishing a few new planting areas or converting your whole lawn to a Bay-Friendly garden.
Use this information to locate your own materials using our source list.
Worm Composting
Worm composting is a great way to turn your food scraps into a nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used for house and garden plants (learn more about using compost in your garden). A pound of red worms can eat 65 pounds of food scraps in less than three months!
Related Resources
Learn more about building healthy soil with this guide that provides tips to help you get started in your garden. It covers soil building strategies including composting, sheet mulching and cover cropping.
This in-depth guide can answer all of your compost questions. Whether you are an urban farmer, community gardener, or a backyard homesteader, this toolkit supports you in becoming an expert composter.
El objetivo de este kit de herramientas es proporcionar un enfoque práctico paso a paso para los agricultores urbanos de cualquier escala para comenzar el compostaje en la granja agrícola, evaluar y mejorar el sistema existente, y convertirse en maestros compostadores.
Compost, Mulch and Soil
Incorporating compost in the soil and covering soil with mulch are two of the simplest and most beneficial practices for improving—and drought-proofing—virtually any landscape.
Home and Community Gardening
Learn How to Make Compost
Turn your food scraps and yard trimmings into a valuable soil amendment.
Related Resources
Learn more about building healthy soil with this guide that provides tips to help you get started in your garden. It covers soil building strategies including composting, sheet mulching and cover cropping.
Congratulations...you have transformed your lawn into a garden, but now what? This brochure covers how to maintain your garden after sheet mulching and includes a calendar of tasks so that you will be ready for every season.
This 70+ page guide is written for the home gardener and provides how-to information, a design survey, profiles of East Bay gardens, and much more.
Wondering about the health of your soil? This interactive guide provides activities for you to engage and observe various aspects of your soil. Do just one activity or them all, at a pace that suits you.
This in-depth guide can answer all of your compost questions. Whether you are an urban farmer, community gardener, or a backyard homesteader, this toolkit supports you in becoming an expert composter.
El objetivo de este kit de herramientas es proporcionar un enfoque práctico paso a paso para los agricultores urbanos de cualquier escala para comenzar el compostaje en la granja agrícola, evaluar y mejorar el sistema existente, y convertirse en maestros compostadores.
Growing cover crops is an excellent practice for all gardeners with an interest in building healthy soil, and especially for growing food. This handout covers the basics and gets you started with step-by-step guidance.
After over a decade of gathering backyard fruit in Alameda and donating it to the Alameda Food Bank (over 23 tons to date!), Alameda Backyard Growers decided it was time to begin nurturing and collaborating with other gleaning groups in the East Bay and beyond.
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