Napa Master Gardener Column

By David Shubin, UC Master Gardener of Napa County.   One of the simplest and most useful ideas a gardener can learn is that plants are not people.  That sounds almost too obvious to say. Yet many of our assumptions about plants come directly from our understanding of our own bodies.  We…

By Valerie Saribalis-Cole, UC Master Gardener of Napa County.  When I was about eight years old, my great aunt introduced me to one of my favorite flowers: the bearded iris. Not only did she share the cut flowers with me, but she instilled a love of gardening and a fascination with propagating the…

By D Marlowe, UC Master Gardener of Napa County.  There is a particular kind of guilt that comes from walking past a neglected garden bed. Mine sat for years, half-hidden under weeds, ivy and blackberry vines, with only a few stubborn dianthus reminding me I had once had plans for the place. Each time I…

By Lloyd Christopher Jones Jr. Master Gardener.  The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is an invasive agricultural pest from Asia. It was first detected in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014 but may have been stateside a few years prior. It is native to China, India and Vietnam.    …

By Melanie Marshall, UC Master Gardener of Napa County.  If you’re like me, you may look at your landscape every day and imagine how much better it would look without the weeds. The harder question, especially if your property is on a hillside, is what to plant in their place.   I decided to remove…