Article and photos by Treva Valentine -
In the past, when people mentioned to me that they garden, I always pictured them vegetable gardening. When I trained with the UC Master Gardener Program some thirty years ago, I quickly realized that many people who garden don’t have anything edible in their landscape. That is fine, of course, but Yolo County’s climate allows us to garden twelve months of the year, and since during each of those twelve months, edibles can be grown, it makes so much sense to grow a kitchen garden!
As a master gardener, it also seemed like a perfect topic for a class. In 2019, I started a class at the Woodland Library to help people figure out how to not only have a more successful summer kitchen garden but also how to eat out of their garden all those other months when tomatoes do not grow.
Knowing what to plant at specific times of the year was only part of the challenge when the COVID lockdown spawned so many new gardeners. The class quickly moved to the Zoom format, which we still use today in order to make it easy for anyone to join us.
On the first Saturday of every month, we talk about what we should be planting and what we could be harvesting. Pests and weather issues are also of interest. In any given month, we take deep dives into topics like seed starting, seed saving, the whys of crop rotation, soil improvement with cover crops, compost and mulches, and so much more. The class has a relaxed format where “any question is welcome as long as it is about edibles.” This flexibility opens many discussions that allow me to go off topic, but educate us all in the process.
The new year brings so many possibilities to our gardens. Maybe it’s the year to learn about growing horseradish or just how to get winter veggies started in the heat of August.
I hope you can join us on the first Saturday of each month from 10 am to 11 am via Zoom. Please check the UC Master Gardeners-Yolo, Upcoming Events webpage before the first Saturday of each month for more information and the Zoom link.