Sow Wild Landscapes

12/28/2016

Ecosystems are important!

Food Tank spoke with Dr. Steve Gliessman, professor, farmer, and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.

09/09/2016

Let us help you accomplish your goals to have a more water wise and ecologically friendly landscape that is pleasing to the eye and benefits your well being.

Here’s a shot of well-loved lawn. Habitat for girls and dogs. A frame and a path and a place to PLAY. But not all lawn is well-considered or well-used, even when it's over-fed and watered and cared for.

Three things I was really pleased with in the Cultivating Place podcast about lawn replacement from yesterday was the opportunity to discuss the questionable nature - and longterm environmental cost - of artificial turf, the second was the opportunity to articulate the critical importance of the healthy natural water cycle allowed for by permeable surfaces and disturbed by the human proliferation of non-permeable hardscape - and the concept of run-off and “urban drool”. You just can’t remind any of us enough - me included - of this cycle and why eliminating run off where we can is so valuable. Finally, I was just so energized by the passion and excitement that Renda Glick and Terry Kiser now have for their front garden. That new-garden love is contagious in the very best of ways. The powerful happiness of witnessing someone fall in love.

Let me know what you think.

To read more: http://jewellgarden.com/Links-and-Resources.php

To listen to this week’s episode or subscribe to the podcast: http://mynspr.org/post/cultivating-place-removing-lawn-becoming-gardener

09/09/2016

Hey everybody, just wanted to check in. We had a bit of a false start getting going with our business. Dan's work as a wildlife biologist really took off this year and he has been quite busy. Katie has also been busy raising our two beautiful children and starting them out at school.

We're hoping to start building our portfolio with the help of friends and family. This new water year we would like to collaborate with you on landscape and garden projects at an introductory discounted rate.

Thank you all for being patient with us. We've been feeling a little bummed we haven't been able to devote the time to one of our passions. Luckily Dan's work schedule slows down when it's time to start planting!

09/07/2016

Dare to think about how much better flowers and trees are for your health and the health of living things compared to a lawn.

In the spring of 2015, this suburban California front yard was all turf. Today, after the removal of 109 sprinkler heads and the lawn, it's a habitat friendly drought tolerant garden and the homeowners are gardeners. In the wake of the ongoing drought in the state of California the state and many municipalities have offered incentives for homeowners and businesses to replace their thirsty lawns with native and drought tolerant “plantings”. Writer and activist Michael Pollan once wrote that "when an American rips out his or her lawn, they become – perforce – a gardener." This week on Cultivating Place (link to listen to in bio), we'll explore this idea from two sides, that of CalWater, a publicly traded water provider in Northern California which for the last two years or so has challenged water users to reduce their water use, and has offered financial incentives to homes and businesses who replace their grass lawns with drought tolerant gardens. We’ll also hear from a homeowner who took this challenge and experienced a "life-changing event."

09/01/2016

What we're after...

09/01/2016

If you are interested in encouraging bats on your property. They also have plans for bat houses. http://www.batcon.org/resources/getting-involved/bat-houses/install

08/23/2016

Food is all around us, and some down right super foods too!

These often overlooked fruits and veggies are both packed with nutrients and indigenous to the U.S. and Canada.

08/12/2016

Integrated animal care

I think my chickens might be spoiled… I don’t make sweaters for them or anything, but they do have a completely-remodeled chicken coop… And GMO-free, organic feed… And all the kitchen scraps they could ever want… And homemade essential oil coop spray… And herbs in their nesting boxes… I realize I ju...

07/31/2016

I absolutely love this plant and this interview!

California Native Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta ssp. californica), is a California and Oregon native deciduous nut tree or shrub growing from 3 - 50 feet, used in garden plantings or woodland parks it will bloom early in the spring, with yellow catkins hanging from the bare branches. In the Autumn, it's foliage turns bright yellow.

In my interview with Stefani Bittner on the most recent episode of Cultivating Place she recounts her own history growing up in a gardening family - with flower and vegetables in all seasons. She notes many good reasons and ways to incorporate beautiful and the edible or otherwise useful plants throughout our gardens. Perhaps the most compelling of these to me was her discussion about connection - how when we garden we are looking for and building connection, and pointing out how the ability to harvest from even your ornamental landscape plants increases your level of connection with the plants - and the place. This really resonated with me and encouraged me to look at the cultivated areas around my home and consider where I might add larger scale edibles (like trees and shrubs), were there plants that I didn't love that could be replaced with edibles I did love? And I even went as far as to consider - where there edible NATIVE plants from my region that would be beautiful, feed me and feed my larger environment/wildlife? It's a fun game, try it.

I am now wondering if I could get our native hazelnut to grow in my back border......hmmmm?

Here's the link to the interview: http://mynspr.org/post/cultivating-place-stefani-bittner-and-beautiful-edible-garden-and-its-multilayered-harvest

06/29/2016

The no-see-em biting flies are bad at our place in the month of June. We will have to make some of this to help with the extreme itch that comes along with the bites.

Harness the natural healing power of the plantain herb in this easy to make salve. It's perfect for minor cuts and burns and a great addition to your first aid kit.

06/27/2016

So many regenerative ways to feed your chickens on site!

Years ago, as the cost of commercial chicken feed skyrocketed, I found myself in search of a more creative option.   At the time, I experimented with rotating the flock on pasture and successfully cut my feed cost in half.   After that, I experimented with free ranging and cut my costs by 90%!   …

03/30/2016

The wildflowers are going off around here!

03/16/2016

Gotta love reducing work load and easy beauty.

Some crop plants are self-seeding. With a bit of light management each generation can be coaxed into providing seeds season after season.

03/14/2016

Comfrey is such a power packed plant! Great to incorporate into our high functioning landscapes.

Comfrey is a large hairy permaculture plant with green leaves and small bell-shaped flowers. It is often colored purple or white.

03/06/2016

Sow Wild Landscapes seeks to help you accomplish this on your landscape through ecology based landscape design. Let us know if you are interested in consultations, design, and implementation.

One of the most essential aspects of a permaculture design is how it interacts with local wildlife. Here are the tips for creating a garden.

02/18/2016

I truly believe that a lot of "little" solutions to California's water situation is what it is going to take to remedy the problem. The solution is not these giant water projects like the twin tunnels and large reservoirs that will create even more environmental destruction to already beleaguered ecosystems. We continue to prop up these artificial systems and then continue to add "stilts" to fix the original problem that existed. Soon we will create systems that have been propped and re-propped until they are vulnerable to collapse. A resilient system is a diversified system, not these giant band-aid projects.

With the drought in mind, two schools in the San Diego Unified School District and one in the Encinitas Union School District are taking part in a new rainwater collection program that saves water and teaches science.

02/11/2016

Well, we had a bit of a down time with the winter season, but we are feeling the vibrations of spring around here. It has a way of getting the gears in the heart and mind moving again. Winter is often a time when I am reminded that slow and steady wins the race; however, life is paradoxical. Spring is that reminder... "don't be too slow, or you will miss the boat." Time to get things moving around here. How about you guys? Feeling it right now? Let's get on it, eh? What are you looking forward to accomplishing in your landscape this spring?

11/29/2015

Swales are a way of retaining water underground on your property. They help slow, spread, and sink the water.

Nicholas Burtner is at Casitas Valley Farm getting the scoop from Warren Brush on how a 9 month old swale has had unbelievable aquifer filling ability for a well on the property, even in...

10/12/2015

With your help... https://youtu.be/5G-GODN_YEc

www.gofundme.com/sowwildlandscapes

This video is about Sow Wild Landscapes

10/12/2015

We just added the budget to our campaign description to help folks get a feel for what we would be using the money for. We are at $180 donated as of today with a long $5,020 to go. We really do need your help. We are a young family that is unemployed right now. As you may know, I am a wildlife biologist, with our current situation I probably won't be going back to work until late spring/early summer. Your help is greatly needed to get the winds blowing to get us aloft so that we may eventually soar. This business is our effort to use our great deal of knowledge about wildlife, plants, ecology, etc. in a way that we can create our own future, help folks create a more abundant and regenerative lifestyle, foster a symbiotic relationship between people and their land/habitat/ecosystem, improve habitat for wildlife, and it may sound grandiose...but we are truly aiming to help heal the land, improve community's resilience, and do our part to make the world a better place. Please help us with a donation to attain our hopes, dreams, aspirations and those of the people and communities we aim to serve. You truly can help. Much love, light, and blessings your way. www.gofundme.com/SowWildLandscapes

10/01/2015

We have officially launched our GoFundMe Campaign! Check it out at www.gofundme.com/SowWildLandscapes and be sure to check out our little video we made. We appreciate any support you can give in the form of Donations, shares, and likes.

Sow Wild Landscapes is an ecology-based landscape design company. We collaborate with residents to co-create an abundant landscape that fosters a symbiotic relationship between land owner and wildlife ecosystem. Our company seeks to empower people to reap a bountiful lifestyle in a regenerative m...

09/16/2015

Garden Design Magazine 2015 Garden Trends article is hitting on a lot of ecological landscape design principles such as edible landscaping or foodscaping, urban gardening, knowing where your food comes from, naturalistic or meadow gardening, butterfly and pollinator gardens, native wildflowers, water-wise landscaping, and laundry to landscape greywater recycling.

http://www.gardendesign.com/2015/trends.html

Sow Wild Landscapes can help you achieve your aspirations to incorporate ecology based garden design principles into your space. It is exciting to see that ecological landscaping is becoming trendy.

5 top designers share their 2015 gardening trends including vastly popular edible gardens, container garden inspiration, and corten steel uses.

09/13/2015

Do you guys like our new logo?

09/13/2015

Sow Wild Landscapes Logo

09/12/2015

Let's work to create a more integrated food production system because let's face it, we were never separate from out surrounding ecosystem in the first place. Part of Sow Wild Landscapes' mission is to help foster a symbiotic relationship between people and the ecosystem they live in.

Most leafy green lovers probably remember the moment when they became suspicious of spinach. In 2006, an E. coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened about 200 more was traced to the cool-weather crop growing along California’s Central Coast. Despite the fact that federal and state investi…

09/06/2015

We will be launching a small Kickstarter Campaign shortly. It will help us get a bit of momentum for our new ecology based landscape design, regenerative lifestyle products, and education company. When we launch the campaign we will limit it to 30 days so keep an eye out for it. We will definitely be posting a link to the campaign on our FB page. We hope that you are willing to help us sow some wild abundance! Any level of support would be much appreciated.