Edible landscapes are growing like zucchini in the sun as more people recognize the health and economic benefits of designing their yards with pretty plants that taste good, too.

“Sales of fruits and vegetables have remained strong, even during this recession when sales of other plants have lagged,” said Ron Hoffman, owner of Morris Nursery in Riverbank, Calif., echoing the sentiments of many in the state’s nursery industry. “People enjoy growing their own produce and they want plants that do double duty.”

And when they choose brightly colored edibles — like, say, Neon Lights swiss chard or Bronze lettuce — they can have their landscape and eat it, too. But designing and maintaining an edible landscape is easier said than done. How do you know what plants to choose? What if one plant needs different soil and more water than its neighbor? How do you keep the cat from pooping on your produce?

The folks at the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program, with assistance from California Center for Urban Horticulture at UC Davis, are answering those questions and many more at 6 two-day, “train the trainer” workshops throughout the state. Funded by a two-year grant from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the program teaches the art and science of edible landscaping to master gardeners who, in turn, will help train the rest of us.

“Before you install an edible landscape, you need to assess the site and the user,” said Missy Gable, program manager for the California Center for Urban Horticulture. “How much time do you have to devote to gardening? What are your harvest needs? We brought together experts from diverse fields such as landscape architecture, horticulture, food safety and water policy to provide an overview of what’s possible with edible landscaping.”

The workshops are inexpensive — $35 for master gardeners and $65 for industry professionals. In exchange for their reduced rate, master gardeners sign an agreement to teach two classes within three months of their training — one for fellow master gardeners and one for the public. Cheryl Buckwalter, a professional landscaper and executive director of EcoLandscape California, attended an earlier workshop and called the experience “invaluable.”

“Today's landscapes need to work harder than ever,” Buckwalter said. “They need to be water and resource efficient, functional and aesthetically pleasing. The Edible Landscaping Workshop not only showed me how to design the multi-functional landscape of today by incorporating edibles, I also feel qualified to educate my clients, the public and other professionals.”

Will the workshops change the way people garden?

“As part of the project, we’ll be looking at that very thing,” said Pam Geisel, director of the UC Statewide Master Gardener Program and the project’s principal investigator. “We will evaluate the impact of train-the-trainer methodologies to determine whether participants adopt more productive, sustainable landscapes as a result of being trained or from training others.”

The benefits of edible landscaping are bountiful. Parents, for example, love exposing their children to both the joy of gardening and the value of healthy food. Farmers appreciate that more people realize produce doesn’t grow on grocery store shelves. But without a few pointers, it’s easy to err with edibles. Sometimes, for example, our eyes are too big for our stomachs.

“Like me,” Gable said. “I’m a plant nerd. This summer I bought four varieties of zucchini because they were so cool. Believe me, no one needs four varieties of zucchini.”

No two yards or gardeners are the same and the course helps people customize their plan to meet their needs. Do you work 12-hour days? Maybe it’s better for you to help out at a community garden than plant too many edibles in your own back yard. Is your garden in full shade?

“Grow blueberries,” Gable said.

There is still room in four Edible Landscaping Workshops this fall: Oct 11-12 in Santa Clara; Oct. 24-25 in El Cajon; October 26-27 in Los Angeles; Nov. 2-3 in Fresno; and Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in San Luis Obispo. You can register and find more details at http://cchu.ucdavis.edu/events/edible/edible

Media contacts:

• Pam Geisel, Director of the Statewide Master Gardener Program, (530) 865-1154, pgeisel@ucanr.edu
• Missy Gable, California Center for Urban Horticulture at UC Davis, (530) 752-6642, mjborel@ucdavis.edu
• Diane Nelson, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, (530) 752-1969, denelson@ucdavis.edu

Veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, warn pet owners to be careful about using rat poisons and similar compounds.

In recent weeks, veterinarians at the UC Davis William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital have seen a spike in accidental rodenticide poisonings. In the last two weeks of August alone, they diagnosed and treated six canine cases.

If not treated, a dog can die within a week of ingesting rodenticides.

"This is an all-too-common occurrence," said Karl Jandrey, assistant professor of clinical small animal emergency and intensive care at UC Davis. "People are trying to get rid of unwanted rodents, but are not realizing what these toxins do to the other animals who share that environment."

Keeping pets safe

Using proper pest control techniques can help keep family pets safe, said Roger Baldwin, UC Cooperative Extension advisor with the UC Integrated Pest Management Program. Baldwin, a wildlife pest management expert, is based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier.

Dogs can be affected by rodenticides two ways: by eating the poisoned bait or by eating an animal that was poisoned. Both can have serious consequences.

Home improvement stores like Lowes and Home Depot, and even grocery stores, carry a variety of products that may be used to control unwanted rats, mice, pocket gophers and ground squirrels. If the unwanted animals are inside the house, Baldwin recommends using traps rather than poison.

"If a poisoned animal dies behind a wall, you can't get it out and you have to live with the smell for weeks or months," Baldwin said.

Also, before baiting outdoor pests, Baldwin suggests making sure they are not also going inside buildings. If they are, find all potential access points and close them up.

If resorting to poison baits, buy a new product at the store and carefully read the label to understand when, where and how it can be used. Because of rapidly changing restrictions in recent years, old products in your garage or shed could be outdated.

Pocket gopher bait must be placed in the gopher's underground burrow. Even there, Baldwin said, certain dogs will dig up dead pocket gophers if they are close enough to the surface. Families with digging dogs will likely want to choose gopher traps. For ground squirrels, baits can be placed in bait stations or scattered very thinly on the ground through broadcast or spot treatments.

"When you use broadcast or spot treatments, there is relatively little danger to dogs or cats," Baldwin said. "But I would opt to use bait stations in my yard if I had pets running around, just to be on the safe side."

Some rodenticides contain ingredients that are anticoagulants, which slow the clotting of the blood. When dogs ingest these poisons, the active ingredients concentrate in the liver where they interfere with vitamin K storage and the production of blood clotting factors.

At UC Davis' veterinary teaching hospital, dealing with accidental poisoning by an anticoagulant rodenticide can require around-the-clock care with treatments in the intensive care unit to replenish blood clotting factors with fresh frozen plasma and replace vitamin K. If administered early enough, this treatment usually leads to a full recovery. Other rodenticides (e.g., bromethalin, cholecalciferol, strychnine and zinc phosphide) do not have antidotes, so treatment is more difficult.

One patient recently treated at UC Davis was Mocha, a one-year-old Belgian Malinois from Winters, Calif. Mocha had gotten into d-CON, a common rodenticide available at hardware stores.

Luckily, Mocha was brought to the veterinary teaching hospital in time. She responded well to treatment and was able to go home in two days.

"We are grateful for the care Mocha received at UC Davis," said Ken Shaw, Mocha's owner. "Like most dogs, Mocha is adventurous and likes to get into things she shouldn't. But after the treatment at UC Davis, she was home within a few days, happy and playful once again."

 

UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension have collaborated to bring education on healthy eating and exercise to families in two communities in Fresno County — Firebaugh and San Joaquin — where 4 in 10 children are considered overweight or obese and some of the poorest people in the country live.

The work by an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and members of the local community, is made possible by a $4.8 million grant last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The goal of the project, Ninos Sanos/Familia Sana ("Healthy Children/Healthy Family"), is to curb obesity among Mexican-heritage children ages 2-8.

In all, 400 children and their families in Firebaugh will be provided with practical tools, education and incentives to help them eat healthy diets and get sufficient exercise in a five-year program. Many of the programs and meetings will be held at a new center that will launch Thursday.

On Sunday, in celebration of Mexican Independence Day, a mural depicting the history and culture of the community will be unveiled on the wall of a community center in San Joaquin. The mural has been painted this month as a collaborative project by UC Davis students and San Joaquin residents, including youth.

A mural in progress,  designed by Jaime Montiel, artist-in-residence at Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) at UC Davis, is created in the Fresno County community of San Joaquin. The mural painted Sept. 1-15 is based on the community's cultural and social history. Carlos Francisco Jackson, founding director of TANA, co-leads the Ninos Sanos/Familia Sana study. Photo by Gilda Posada, community art engagement project coordinator, TANA

Curbing obesity among Mexican-heritage children in California's Central Valley is the focus of a new center set to open its doors Thursday in the Fresno County town of Firebaugh.

Called "Ninos Sanos, Familia Sana" (Healthy Children, Health Family), the center is a collaborative effort of the University of California, Davis, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and local communities and organizations.

"Opening this center really gives us an opportunity to work with the community -- to be there for children and families and show we are committed to promoting good nutrition and physical activity," said Adela de la Torre, professor of Chicana/o studies and director of the Center for Transnational Health at UC Davis. "We want to help them learn the best approaches to preventing obesity now and in the long term."

Part of a five-year, $4.8 million study aimed at identifying effective approaches to combating obesity, the center will address a problem that affects more than four in 10 children born to parents of Mexican heritage, putting them at greater risk of early diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Planning for the study, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began last year. The study will conclude in 2016.

During the study, 400 Firebaugh children and their families will receive practical tools, education and incentives to help them eat healthy diets and get sufficient exercise. Interventions will include:

• $25 monthly in vouchers for families to buy fruits and vegetables at participating markets;
• classroom instruction for children on nutrition and physical activity;
• 10 family education nights per year in which parents will learn how to select and use fresh ingredients to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their children; and
• twice-yearly health screenings to monitor weight, blood pressure, body-mass index, skinfold thickness and waist circumference.

At the same time, 400 children and families in the town of San Joaquin will receive:

• twice-yearly health screenings
• a series of forums designed to assist parents in supporting their children's education

The San Joaquin community will also benefit from these outreach
activities:

• UC Davis will collaborate with area schools to enrich the science curriculum.
• A community mural project will depict the rich cultural heritage and history of the community. (The mural, painted on an outdoor wall of a community learning center in San Joaquin, will be unveiled on Sunday, Sept. 16).

At the study's conclusion, de la Torre and her research colleagues will have data to show whether the food vouchers and health education programs tested in Firebaugh are effective, using San Joaquin as a control. San Joaquin families and schools will then receive much of the same intervention used in Firebaugh, with assistance from UC Cooperative Extension specialists.

Both Firebaugh and San Joaquin are located in Congressional District 20, an area with the nation's lowest human development index, an international measurement of wellbeing based on longevity, standard of living and other factors.

"The irony here is that their parents may harvest vegetables in the fields -- some of the richest agricultural land anywhere in the world -- but their children rarely share in this bounty," de la Torre said. "We need to provide better access to fresh vegetables and fruit in stores and teach these families how to prepare these foods in easy and convenient ways, to make these good foods part of their lives. That is what this program is about."

An agricultural economist, de la Torre has studied Latino health issues in the U.S. and Mexico for more than 25 years.

Throughout the study, an advisory committee made up of school, community and parent representatives from each community will provide feedback on program strategies, approaches, concerns and solutions to the barriers that prevent children from maintaining healthy weights.

Participants include parents who have volunteered to have their families take part; grocery stores; health professionals (Sablan Medical Clinics); a nonprofit, community-based program of promotoras, or outreach workers (Proteus, Inc.); school teachers and administrators (Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District and Golden Plains Unified School District in San Joaquin).

Also participating are about 20 educational specialists, economists, nutritionists, psychologists, physicians, and graduate and undergraduate students from UC Davis and the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Lucia Kaiser, Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition and a co-investigator on the study, said:

"This project is an exciting opportunity for UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension to pull a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, nutritionists and other professionals to work in partnership with an underserved community to prevent a pressing health problem -- childhood obesity."


Additional information:

• Center for Transnational Health

 

Editor's note:

• Interviews will be available in Spanish. Lean en espanol: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10329]

Media contact(s):
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