Community Soil

A FULL-SERVICE LANDSCAPE DESIGN, INSTALLATION & MAINTENANCE COMPANY

Community Soil is a comprehensive design, installation, and maintenance company that offers a range of services to assist landowners in maximizing the potential of their properties.

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We manage sites from the foundation of the home to the edges of the property lines, including all aspects of construction from infrastructures and utilities to intricate plantings. Throughout the project, our top priority is clear communication, ensuring that our clients’ expectations regarding aesthetics, functionality, and costs are understood and met.

Our practice is ecologically driven, taking into account the changing climate, the regional environment, and the life cycles of the materials we use. Upon project completion, our clients can expect beautiful spaces that not only serve their functional purposes but also grow more resilient and enjoyable over time.

At Community Soil, site maintenance goes beyond a simple weekly mow and blow routine. We create spaces that can thrive with care provided on a monthly, bi-monthly, or even quarterly basis. By establishing a tailored maintenance plan, we ensure the ongoing health and vitality of the landscapes we create.

Meet Our Team Leaders

HELLO, NICE TO MEET YOU!

Paolo Tantarelli, Principal & Project Manager

Paolo has worked with some of the top gardeners and builders in California, growing food and practicing sustainable building at places like the Solar Living Institute, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and Golden Nectar Farms. His garden work and style reflect key principles of permaculture, the bio-intensive method, and biomimicry.

Paolo received his Bachelors Degree from Chico State University in Cultural Anthropology, with a Minor in Italian. He has traveled extensively through Central and South America, following a passion to study human behavior as well as healthy food systems throughout history.

Jeff Shields, Principal & Project Manager

Jeff grew up in the Bay Area and has lived in Sonoma County since 2008. He first worked on community-driven garden projects in San Francisco with the Department of Public Works and their Community Garden Program.

After working in the public sector and interning for SF Environment, Sierra Club, and Emerald Earth Sanctuary, he began managing ornamental and edible gardens at private retreat centers such as Mayacamas Ranch and Mark West Lodge in Sonoma County. During this time, he also installed private gardens, integrating his experience and skills with sustainable water systems and native and site appropriate plant materials.

In 2010, Jeff co-founded Community Soil and the Larkfield Community Garden and Learning Center.

Josho Somine, Lead Designer

Josho is a Bay Area native who first encountered permaculture in the late ‘90s, studying, working and teaching nationally and internationally over the next 10+ years. He earned a BFA in sculpture and public art from CCAC in ‘02, and worked in nonprofit garden-based education for several years.

Seeking more design rigor, he completed a Master’s in Landscape Architecture at UW Seattle in 2010, and worked at a high-end design firm for 5 years before joining Community Soil.

Devoted to aesthetics and a stickler for details, he likes to connect big-picture thinking with intimate built details, and seeks to cultivate legibility and spatial dynamism in the landscape.

Portfolio

TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT WE’VE DONE

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Questions? Ready for a site assessment? Contact us now!

Design Services

HOW WE WORK WITH YOU AND THE LAND

We offer a free, half-hour site assessment visit for prospective clients in Sonoma county.

Once we have seen your property and heard about your aspirations for it, we can tell you how we would approach the process of designing and implementing your site improvements.

Usually one quick visit is enough to tell if we are a good ‘fit’ for your needs.

To develop a custom design proposal, we provide an introductory landowner’s questionnaire, conduct site research at the county level, and schedule a longer interview and site tour.

For a deposit retainer, we create a comprehensive, tailored design proposal to transform your intentions and our observations into working plans for the whole property.

Final design documentation packages typically include one or more schematic site plans, a planting palette, and itemized cost estimates for construction by Community Soil’s crews.

Ingredients and details vary for each project, but a typical site design timeline and fee schedule is usually 2-3 months and $5-10k from starting to finish documents.

Learn more about our design approach

If you have a more expansive property or prefer a DIY approach, we also offer site consultation services.

This involves walking the land together, providing specific observations and suggestions for the property. Taking notes is encouraged, and we can provide diagrams as needed and limited follow-up references.

For some land owners, a good consultation may be enough to give them the perspectives they need to begin working their land in an informed and beneficial manner.

Design Approach

THE WAYS WE LOOK AT THE LAND AND PROVIDE SOLUTIONS

SITE PLANNING

Many properties get developed gradually, project by project, as time and money permit. While this process can provide basic functionality, it often results in a hodge-podge of elements that don’t quite fit together into a cohesive scene or enable smooth circulation of people, vehicles and materials.

We emphasize the value of comprehensive master planning, which outlines how all the essential aspects of a site design will fit together. Once you have a master site plan developed, you can build out parts of it gradually while still knowing that the finished results will integrate with and complement each other.

This type of planning also tends to reduce overall costs, as process efficiencies can result from comprehensive preparations.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Landscape architecture is a professional discipline grounded in millennia of human land development practices.

After a thorough analysis of the setting and intentions, it begins with landforms and infrastructures, circulation routes and built structures, and finishes with improved soil health and robust plantings.

Thoughtful design should result in clarity, beauty, and ease of use, and help the owner connect more deeply with their landscape.

PERMACULTURE

Permaculture is a whole-systems ecological design methodology, developed in Australia in the 1970s. It integrates modern and traditional land-use strategies and techniques with design principles and environmental ethics to create abundant and regenerative human habitations.

Beneficial connections are emphasized between elements on site, and between the built environment and the natural context.

REGENERATION & RESILIENCE

Many modern approaches to development and land use have resulted in negative ecological impacts to local environments and the planet as a whole.

We prioritize design details, material selections, and maintenance regimes that can reverse these trends, improving soil health, recharging groundwater, and enhancing habitat value, while providing beautiful spaces for landowners.

Resilience is the ability to withstand and recover from stressful and challenging experiences. In the era of climate change, landscapes can be subject to drought, flood, fire, wind, and other potentially catastrophic impacts. Mindful site design incorporates strategic resistance to these forces, and can buffer the impacts and reduce damage from local calamities.

Design Process

EACH LANDSCAPE AND PROJECT IS UNIQUE

A complete sequence of steps is outlined below — depending on your property and intended scope, all or just a few of these ingredients may be included in your combination of design documents & requirements.

BASE MAPPING

All available site documents are compiled and synthesized with field observations to create a scaled working map of the property.

The more detailed the map, the better the design can respond to and enhance the conditions of the landscape.

View Sample Base Map

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

Early design studies are diagrammatic, showing alternative configurations of major elements and circulation routes.

At this stage, design intentions and options are confirmed with clients before developing the elements to further levels of detail.

View Sample Concept Plan

SCHEMATIC DESIGN

A well-developed design scheme shows the placement and scale of all the major elements in a new, improved arrangement for the property.

This level of detail is generally sufficient for ballpark construction estimates, although the construction details for some aspects may not be worked out yet.

View Sample Schematic Design

CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

A landscape construction plan shows all the details from the schematic plan, with detailed notes and measurements for the builders.

This type of enhanced plan is typically needed for detailed cost estimation and effective project planning.

View Sample Landscape Plan

PLANTING DESIGN

Plants are the ‘icing on the cake’ of the site development process.

While general notes about plant types and groupings typically accompany the schematic plan, a planting plan calls out exact species, varieties, quantities and sizes of plants with which to populate the newly configured landscape.

This also enables detailed estimation of installation costs.

View Sample Planting Plan

CONSTRUCTION DETAILING

Before building any new, custom structures, scaled construction drawings are developed to work out and confirm the details and provide precise data for cost estimation.

A few hours of drafting can save countless hours of construction headaches.

View Sample Construction Details

AS-BUILT PLANS & MAINTENANCE MANUALS

Built elements sometimes change over the construction process, in response to particular site details.

At the owner’s discretion, design plans can be updated to include alterations and utilities, for accurate future reference.

Landscape maintenance best practices can also be compiled and specified in a custom site manual, to ensure the proper care of the new landscape design during its establishment and future stewardship.

OUR HISTORY

HOW WE GOT STARTED

Community Soil was founded in 2010 as a family-oriented and ethically driven business with deep roots in Sonoma County. We feel fortunate to live and work in this remarkable region, improving landscapes throughout diverse and favorable microclimates. Our appreciation for our neighbors drives us to care for the land in a way that ensures that its beauty, abundance, and biodiversity can be cherished by many generations to come. We deeply value our employees, and respect the need to provide living wages and benefits.

Landowners today understand the critical importance of addressing climate change, and we are honored to collaborate with them in creating sustainable solutions that mitigate climate impacts, improve resilience, and ensure long-term productivity. Community Soil Foundation was founded in 2012 to share these priorities with a wider population, offering ecological education to school children, garden produce to local residents, and fire and flood mitigation to impacted communities.

Community Soil is more than just a business; it is a family-owned and operated venture deeply rooted in Sonoma County. We feel fortunate to raise our families in this remarkable region while working with the land in such a diverse and favorable microclimate.

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Testimonials

WHAT FOLKS SAY

“Paolo and his team were recommended to us by our best friends and neighbors in West County. We worked with Paolo and his team across interior landscaping, waterway management, forestry management, and even collaborated with neighbors along the way.

This is a high quality, thoughtful group that stands behind their work.”

“Community Soil is fantastic! They helped us envision and create our new gardens when we replaced our front and backyard lawns. We wanted colorful, fragrant, drought-tolerant plants that would attract bees and butterflies. We also wanted fruit trees, a vegetable garden, as well as flowers. They installed a drip system that is easy to maintain in the warmer months.

I love watching the yard change from season to season–something new is always blooming. In late Autumn, they button everything up until Spring arrives and then we get to plan what we want for the coming season.

They always have great recommendations and their service is top-notch. The team is very talented, creative, knowledgeable, and patient. I highly recommend Community Soil!”

“If you are looking for high quality, thoughtful approach to managing your land we highly recommend Community Soil as a partner. They worked with us closely in restoring habitat and water management on 15 acres of redwood forested land.

We watched them carefully, meticulously bring health back to a largely neglected piece of West County land.

We plan to have a lifelong relationship with Paolo and his group”

“We starting working with Paolo and Jeff in late 2014 trying to develop a vision for how to put some life and order to our 8.5 acre old plum/prune farm.

Over the last 8+ years we have used Community Soil’s skills and vision to create gardens, restore oak woodlands, add an arbor and gathering place, and generally find a way to incorporate our sense of place on our land, and how to work with our natural surroundings in a sustainable way.

Paolo and Jeff and their team have been a pleasure to work with on this journey.”

“If you are looking for a landscaping business which designs according to sound environmental principles, I suggest using Community Soil.  They helped me reconstruct my landscaping after the Tubbs Fire burned my home and 6 acres of oak woodland.

They utilized the dead tree trunks for slope and winter creek erosion control. They constructed swales using the trees and branches in combination with my roof water drainage to raise the water table of my property. Plants and planting designs were beautiful while respecting water usage. They used sound forestry and fire management principles in selecting and protecting regrowth of the oak trees and other native trees and shrubs.

Paolo, Jeff and Josho have their respective areas of expertise and are personable and easy to work with. They are pricier than some businesses because they pay their workers livable wages, ensuring long-term, skilled employees.

I highly recommend Community Soil for landscape planning and maintenance.”

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Sonoma, Mendocino & Napa Counties  ·  California
707-889-1744  ·  moc.liosytinummoc@ofni