February 4, 2025
The garden will feature native plants and encourage visitors to replicate it
Volunteer opportunities were recently announced at Lake Solano Park. The project, a demonstration garden, has been in the works for years and is the result of collaborations between state and city departments, local nonprofits and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
The demonstration garden, and the over 17-acres that surround it, were heavily impacted by the LNU Lighting Complex Fires in 2020. Now the area will be turned into the garden, a wildflower meadow and a home for native plant species.
“I’ve had my eye on this area for quite a while,” says Katherine Holmes, the deputy executive director at Solano Resource Conservation District (RCD). “It’s sort of a place where the parks store extra tree chips, or equipment occasionally, they’ve had a burn pile there.”
Holmes says she has been thinking about the project for years, and while many elements are still in the works, the upcoming volunteer days provide an opportunity for the public to help plant native species in the garden.
“It’s been a while since we started talking about it 10 years ago to actually getting the funding through two different grants, two different state agencies, and now we’re in the process of implementing it,” says Holmes.
“We’ve had a working relationship with them for a while but this is the first time that we’ve ever talked about putting in a garden featuring plants that are important to them,” Holmes said of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation collaboration.
But the restoration project extends to much more than the acre and a half span that will be the garden. “The whole upland area of the park needed to be re-vegitated after the LNU fires,” she said.
Solano RDC has also partnered with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, and the demonstration garden will be home to about 15 culturally significant plant species.
Before planting could begin, Solano RDC cleared the land of trees, now turned to mulch from the fires. “It’s very sad. It’s definitely not a shady garden right now. It will take a while for us to recover the shade,” said Holmes.
Throughout the entire 19-acre project, about 100 different species of plant will be planted, she says, with 50-75 in the demonstration garden.
The name, “demonstration garden,” was in part intended for visitors, says Holmes. “It’s to demonstrate to anyone who visits it that these are plants that can be used in your own yard, as a way to have a water efficient yard that provides berries and seeds and nectar for native wildlife.”
One of the main goals of the garden is to educate visitors on plants that support Monarch butterflies, says Holmes. “There will be a whole section on plants that are good for monarch butterflies and other butterflies, too.”
As opposed to Monarchs on the East Coast, California migration is more East-West than North-South, she says. “When they migrate, they don’t head down to Mexico. They actually migrate in the Spring out across California and out into the desert.”
“It’s really important for people living in the Central Valley to plant plants that those monarchs can visit on their journey across California,” says Holmes.
The project is still looking for volunteers to help plant the garden.
“We believe in community-based restoration with the idea that if people learn about the monarch for example, then they are more likely to plant some of these plants in their own yard so we’re inviting people to come to these restoration events,” said Holmes.
So far, not many volunteers have signed up, says Holmes. “I think the really rainy week has probably got people thinking twice about this weekend but it’s actually supposed to be sunny Saturday so fingers crossed we get some folks signing up.”
Overall, Holmes offers one main takeaway from working on the demonstration garden: “It’s really a very partnership-oriented project.”
Holmes has worked with Solano County Parks, Putah Council, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, California State Coastal Conservancy and more to bring the project to life.
Interested volunteers can RSVP to katherine.holmes@solanorcd.org If you go …
WHAT: Demonstration Garden Volunteer Planting event
WHEN: Feb. 8, 22 and March 15, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lake Solano Park, address received upon RSVP