HOrT COCO-UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa

Winter storms with high winds or heavy rains take a toll on our trees and may cause a tree to fail. Most susceptible are the trees that keep their leaves all year, including broadleaf evergreens like eucalyptus and conifers. The greenery acts like a sail in a heavy wind and can cause the tree to bend…

Over the years I have encountered all the potato growing FAILS in my attempts to grow beautiful potatoes in Contra Costa County. First year…Clay soil smothered my sad seedlings. My next attempt was grocery store potatoes in a hilled bed of potting mix which resulted in beautiful potatoes with a rust disease…

Spring is just around the corner! With the increase in daylight hours and gradually warming days, our fruit trees will respond by going into bud break, leaf set, and full flower. The orchard is lovely this time of year but there is the potential lurking for a devastating disease to infect those trees. That…

Note: This article was originally published in the Contra Costa Times. It has been updated.Winter is the time to perform certain maintenance activities on deciduous fruit trees to reduce insect and disease problems during the growing season. The most common deciduous fruit trees in the home orchard and the…

Every year hundreds of questions come to the Help Desk, a UC Master Gardener project designed to bring information about sustainable gardening to Contra Costa residents. At the Help Desk, a team of Master Gardeners answers questions about insect problems, plant diseases and how to manage the ever-pesky…