Monterey Bay Friendly Landscaping

As of December 31st, 2015, over 100 landscapes in the Monterey Bay area have been certified as Monterey Bay Friendly. This is exciting news for a number of reasons. With the Santa Cruz-based non-profit Ecology Action at the helm, an advisory committee to bring this program to the Monterey Bay area has been meeting regularly since May 2013. The director of the program, Sherry Bryan of Ecology Action, has stated that Terra Nova provided inspiration to bring this program to the Monterey Bay area.  The program is modeled after the Bay Friendly Landscaping program in the Bay Area, which is already the parent of River Friendly Landscaping in the Sacramento area.

Having been involved with promotion of and education about ecological landscaping since the late 1980’s it is very gratifying to see this program take off in the Monterey Bay area. As an instructor of Permaculture in the horticulture program at Cabrillo College this is very exciting for another reason. Permaculture is a very fun design science to teach. But Permaculture is notoriously hard to define especially in small sound bites. While I love teaching it and using the word Permaculture, it is great to see a program like the Monterey Bay Friendly Landscaping arrive on the scene because it has much of the elements and employs many of the Permaculture principles without using the word.

Things like reducing waste, creating habitats for wildlife, conserving energy, conserving water, and building soil are all in line with Permaculture.

When you get your landscape certified as Monterey Bay Friendly there are a number of rebates and incentives available.  like a 10% discount on any item in store, excluding Livestock Feed at Mountain Feed and Farm Supply