- Author: Edith Warkenine
On Saturday, April 27, 2019, fifteen Inyo-Mono County Master Gardeners served as volunteers for the 50th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. Each year since 1969, the Manzanar Committee has sponsored the Pilgrimage. It is estimated that more than 2,000 people attended this year to honor and remember Japanese who were incarcerated in this remote spot during World War II, and to learn from what happened at Manzanar so that we may apply those lessons to the present day.
Many of those held at the camp worked hard to create a little beauty in their surroundings by creating gardens and tending the orchards. These are now in the process of being restored. Inyo and Mono county UC Master Gardener volunteers assisted the National Park Service, which hosts the annual event, by greeting visitors at specific gardens and sharing stories and information about the gardens. Master Gardeners were stationed at Arai Pond, a representative barracks garden, Merritt Park—the largest community garden—and the mess hall gardens at Blocks 9, 15 and 22. Volunteers spent a considerable amount of time before the Pilgrimage studying the Manzanar gardens and orchards and the Manzanar Garden Management Plan.
This event was the first stage of the Master Gardener's Manzanar Project. Over the summer, Master Gardeners will be working with NPS staff to begin docent tours of the gardens and orchards, to conduct research on other barrack gardens, and on the Manzanar guayule project. (Guayule was grown at Manzanar during the war as a potential source of natural rubber.)
- Author: Vivian Patterson
Viv Patterson and Trish Schlichting, both Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners, visited the Flower Clock in Geneva, Switzerland, this past October.
Geneva is recognized all around the world for its watch-making tradition. In 1955 Geneva created the biggest clock in the world made from flowers. The flower clock is in Le Jardin Anglais (the English Garden). The garden was constructed in 1855; the Flower Clock was built at the park's centennial to pay homage to Switzerland by perfectly combining watchmaking and horticultural know-how.
The Flower Clock was renovated in May 2017. A new floral concept consisting of more than 12,000 plants was carefully installed by mosaiculture* experts (see note) from the Greenspace Department of the City of Geneva. A watering system, essential for the survival of the plants and their full-sun exposure accompanies the installation. New hands, with an elegant design close to the original one, were manufactured and offered to the City by the firm Patek Philippe. The seconds hand is 2.5 meters long and is arguably the largest in the world. The clock has an electronic time setting via satellite.
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*Mosaiculture is the horticultural art of creating giant topiary-like sculptures using thousands of annual bedding plants to carpet steel armature forms.
- Author: Dustin Blakey
I drove down to Ridgecrest last week hoping to check out the wildflowers. While I did eventually get to see some great blooms, I had to stop a couple times to clear off my windshield which looked something like this:
In March the annual northern migration of painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) had arrived in southern California, eventually arriving in our area. No doubt you have seen those that didn't collide with my windshield in great numbers on fruit tree blossoms and and other blooms.
This is a annual event, but according to Dr. Art Shapiro their numbers are huge on years that have large wildflower blooms. The last major large migration was in 2005.
The Eastern Sierra is a favored path for their travels to the Pacific Northwest. It will take several generations of the butterflies to make it northward, and then the process will repeat in the autumn when they return to Texas and Mexico for the winter.
NBC News down south did a piece on these butterflies. You can see it here.
I always find these mass migrations of insects interesting. I am glad that in this case it's something harmless and beautiful.
- Author: Erich Warkentine
An overflow crowd of master gardeners and interested members of the community gathered at the Community Garden on Sunday, March 24, 2019, to hear Alison Collin speak about herbs. Alison covered a wide range of topics, including growing needs of culinary herbs and aromatic varieties. The high points of her talk are summarized below.
Technically, an herb is a plant that doesn't produce a permanent woody stem; however, in common use, an herb is a plant that has culinary, aromatic or medicinal properties. Herbs can be annual (one season of growth), biennial (two seasons of growth with flowers in the second year), or perennial (ongoing growth, some lasting many years).
Herbs can be used in many different ways. Not only are they great for cooking and providing welcome fragrances, but many have been used in medicine. In every case, however, Alison cautioned the audience to know their herbs before use since many traditionally used herbs are now known to have detrimental side effects such as liver damage, increased bleeding times or alterations in blood pressure.
It is also important to time the harvest of your herbs carefully. Pick herbs for leaf harvest before flower stems are developed since this is when the leaves contain the highest concentration of oils. For example, she related the story of harvesting mint which was passed its first bloom and had lost all of its fragrance. Similarly, she cautioned about the need to pinch off flowers from basil, to keep the basil producing new edible shoots for as long as possible before it dies.
One of her helpful tips was that mint grows so vigorously that it can take over the garden; therefore, she suggested that those who wish to grow mint do so in a container.
For more information about growing and using fresh herbs, see:
- https://ucanr.edu/sites/poisonous_safe_plants/files/154528.pdf
- https://extension.psu.edu/programs/master-gardener/counties/chester/how-to-gardening-brochures/herb-gardening
- For more information about drying your own fresh herbs, see:http://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Food_Gardening/Additional_KG_Articles/Drying_Herbs/
- Author: Alison Collin
The main quality of a competent gardener must surely be the skill of accurate observation. However, observations on their own do little to help us unless they are recorded in some way so that they may be referenced at a later time.
Keeping records of ones horticultural endeavors over a period of years is surely the best way to develop knowledge and experience as a gardener. I was therefore delighted, if a little daunted, to receive a very substantial ten-year Gardening Journal (from Lee Valley Hardware) as a present many years ago.
There are numerous ways to record what goes on in the garden through the year; old school notebooks, loose-leaf binders, purposely designed diaries, and even by annotating published gardening books with ones own notes. Indeed one of my most treasured books was published in 1911 and belonged to my grandfather who added copious notes in every margin, together with newspaper cuttings about the latest horticultural research, and advertisements from various mail-order companies selling obscure plants. And for those who have lost the art of using paper and pencil there are numerous computer programs offering templates, and apps for smart phones, some of which are free.
However, my 10-year version is delightfully and practically laid out so that entries are easy to make, and year by year comparisons are under each other on a page. There are separate pages for entering seed-sowing and planting dates which also include harvest dates and yields, plant inventories and plant purchases. There are pages printed with grids for planning one's garden which have proved invaluable for recording such things as underground irrigation pipes. And there are sound tips and ideas on how to grow various crops.
Each entry has a weather record with places to record maximum and minimum temperatures, and then just plain lines for the entry. I much prefer this to the types which have lots of headings such as “lawn”, “bulbs”, “flowers”, “fruit” or “greenhouse” on each page because there are many times of year when half the headings are not applicable. The only downside to my version is its substantial size, and that there is no ability to add photographs, so these have to be stored in my computer in a “garden timeline” file. I also have to store plant labels separately.
The first entries in the tome were in the winter of 2010-2011 and for several years I thought that I had made some sort of error since the temperatures and rainfall seemed to be so inconsistent with all the subsequent years which had much warmer temperatures. That is until this year which pretty well matches my earliest entries.
Taking just one day in the year, March 8, my entries show that the blossom on a Santa Rosa plum behaved as follows: 2012 “Well out”, 2013 “several blossoms out”, 2014 “Well out with some unopened buds”, 2015 “Well over”, 2016 “Well over”, 2017 “Buds just showing some white”, 2018 “Nearly out”, and 2019, “No flowers open, buds white”.
It is helpful to set aside a certain time of day to make entries so as to remain consistent. For me I find that just before retiring for the night works well, and I seldom miss a day if I keep to that time.
Just as I have enjoyed reading my grandfather's entries, I hope that someday one of my grandchildren will get pleasure from my efforts.
Link to 10-year Garden Journal: http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?p=43043&cat=2,58054,46147,43043