Napa Master Gardener Column

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County February is Black History Month, and I realized that I knew virtually nothing about the contributions of Black people to how we garden.

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County One of the challenges many gardeners face is how to make shady spots look good. Fortunately, many beautiful, flowering native plants thrive in shade. When you are planning your shade garden, analyze what kind of shade you're dealing with.

by Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County I remember when my parents would go for a drive and the front of the car would be covered with dead bugs that had been hovering in the road. That doesn't happen any longer. The dense populations of bugs have disappeared.

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County Recently, as our winters seem to have become drier (and the rains certainly come later than they used to), I've been exploring the topic of drought-tolerant edibles. This naturally led me to learning about native edible plants.

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County This is the time of year when we start to prepare our soil beds for spring planting. Because Napa County has large rural areas and many households keep backyard chickens, many of us have access to free manure.