The Real Dirt

It is time to start thinking about thinning the fruit on peach, nectarine, plum, pluot, apricot, apple, and pear trees. To produce fruit that is large and healthy, fruit trees need plenty of leaves to feed the developing fruit.  Since trees often set far more fruit than their leaves can adequately support,…

It’s finally springtime, and many of us are adding new plants to our gardens. That means it is also a good time to review the principles of creating defensible space around our homes. Fire is a normal part of the natural environment in California, so if you live in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), it’s…

Butte County Master Gardeners are midway through our Spring 2026 series of workshops. From now (in mid-March) to early June, there are eleven topics to explore. There is something here for beginning and experienced gardeners alike, and for every size of home garden.

When you add new flowering plants to your garden this year, be sure to keep pollinators in mind. Planting for pollinators is a colorful way to attract bees, butterflies, birds, and insects to your garden while increasing the productivity of many edible plants. 

Dirt is made up of four things: minerals (from decomposed rock), air, water, and organic matter. The organic material originates from living organisms (or stuff that was once alive), and a single teaspoon of soil may contain as many as 4 billion bacteria, 1 million fungi, 20 million actinomycetes and 300,000…