- Author: Amy Fritz, Master Gardener
Ahhhhh Spring! For us gardeners, we can't wait to start planning our gardens and going out there and getting dirty!
Our perennials are finally emerging from their winter slumber and the trees are showing their tender new spring leaves!
But what about color in this year's garden? Should we do what we always do with the same color combinations or what about branching out this year with something different? You can even create moods for different areas of your garden if you would like such as calming, pastel colors for a space where you want to create a quiet spot and loud, hot colors to enliven a more active area such as around a pool or areas where your children play. Everyone has their own favorites so color is never wrong but keeping in mind the color wheel will reward you with an even more beautiful garden than ever!
The diagram above shows the color wheel. Using the color wheel is the easiest way to illustrate the concepts of color in your garden.
One easy way to combine colors is to use analogous or harmonious colors, which are those that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors tend to blend well and work best in threes. Usually, one of these colors is dominant with the others taking a supporting role. Both hot and cool colors can create pleasing effects, just keep tones in the right spectrum and the results will reward you time and time again.
Another way to go would be to use complementary colors, meaning colors that sit directly opposite each other on the color wheel. For example, purple and yellow or orange and blue. These colors would be brilliant and happy, and you can add some foliage here and there to add a little break to your garden scheme.
What about monochromatic coloring in your garden? This technique involves using several tints and shades of the same color to provide a simple, calming, and stunning design.
Using warm colors together which would be types of red, orange, and yellow look great together as do using cool colors together which would be shades of green, blue and purple.
You can integrate as many color schemes into your garden as you like, but it will benefit the look more if there are some consistent colors or patterns to bring it all together. For instance, you can choose one of your favorite colors that you want to be your main thrust across your entire garden, and you would make that your main focal point in each area throughout the design to provide some consistency. For example, using red as your main thrust, one area of the garden could have red paired with other warm colors, another it's paired with harmonious colors on the color wheel like purple, another using red's complimentary color, green.
We would be remiss if we didn't discuss green a bit more because, let's face it, it is typically everywhere in our garden! But using it wisely is key. The range of greens is endless and can be fun to play with. For instance, we have dark holly greens which are great paired with purples and can make that section of your garden look very refined. But if you're looking to create a more vibrant garden bed, bright lime greens such as euphorbias will do the trick. Green spaces are like a palette cleanser for your eyes as it makes the spaces calmer and more serene. You can soften fences, houses, sheds and walls with evergreen shrubs and evergreen climbers that give you a sense of wonderful darkness and if you want to add color and contrast alongside them you certainly can.
With all this in mind, plant what you love, there are no hard and fast rules, only suggestions and ideas! You are the master of your garden!
- Author: Flo Pucci, Master Gardener
Spring is an excellent time of the year to take inventory of the things needed to prepare the garden for the growing season ahead. These chores may include evaluating the hardscape, thoroughly cleaning the yard, tuning-up tools, testing and feeding the soil, pruning shrubs, preparing new beds, fertilizing, and checking irrigation.
Yes, it sounds like a lot, but if these chores are tackled a bit at the time, gardeners may find these activities to be fun, and the rewards will be nothing less than a sensory stimulation of color, smells, touch, sound, and taste in the upcoming months. All these chores can be done while plants are still dormant.
Evaluate your hardscape issues.
Check fences, level your steppingstones and pathways for damage caused by rain and frost, and repair walls, benches, decks, sheds, trellises, and raised beds.
Do a thorough spring cleanup.
Look up and assess the trees and remove branches from those that overhang structures. Ideally, just before your spring bulbs pop up, trim ornamental grasses and any other annuals that were not removed during the fall. Clean the plant debris from the garden beds, divide last year's perennials, pull weeds, and clean flower beds. Start a compost pile and refresh the mulch once the soil warms up. Additionally, clean up debris from ponds, water fixtures, bird baths, and containers to prevent lingering diseases or insect eggs from the previous year.
Tune-Up Tools
Scrape excess dirt off the digging tool, wash with soapy water, and allow to dry thoroughly—coat metal parts with linseed oil to prevent rust and corrosion. Sharpen pruners, loopers, and shears. Pruners that are clogged with sap can be hard to use. Solvents such as mineral spirits or turpentine can remove sap from tool blades.
If the tools were exposed to diseased plants or pest-infected soil, give them a quick soak in a diluted solution of 2 cups of household bleach mixed with 1 gallon of water, then rinse in plain water or use rubbing alcohol.
Ensure the lawnmower and other power tools are in good condition, and add oil or gas as needed. Clean your garden shed and garage, organize tools and supplies, and discard unnecessary items.
Test and feed the soil in the garden.
Experts recommend that garden soils be tested every few years to see whether nutrients or organic matter are needed. A good general practice is to top-dress the soil with an inch or two of compost, humus, and manure in early spring, just before bulbs emerge. Sprinkle a slow-release plant food around perennials and shrubs. Earthworms and other garden creatures will do the job of working these organic materials into the soil.
Prune Shrubs
Now is the time to prune trees, roses, hydrangeas, shrubs, and perennials vines. Research best practices, techniques, and timing for each variety and hold off on pruning spring bloomers until after they flower.
Prepare New Beds
Remove surface debris such as leaves or mulch from vegetable beds to help warm the soil. Wait until the soil has dried out sufficiently before tilling to avoid compaction. If the soil crumbles when you try to make a ball, it's time to work on the beds. Add amendments such as aged compost, manure, and trace minerals before planting early crops. Start vegetable and annual seeds indoors for 6-8 weeks before replanting them outside. Make a planting schedule, so seedlings mature at the optimal time for the local region. Succession planting will aid in maximizing the harvest from a raised bed. Summer vegetables can be sown in late spring.
Fertilize
The garden is waking up, thus applying a balanced fertilizer or fish emulsion around trees and shrubs can re-invigorate plants when new growth appears—spread high-acid fertilizer and mulch around acid-loving shrubs like azaleas, camellias, blueberries, or citrus. Begin fertilizing perennials when active growth resumes.
Maintain Irrigation
Check, adjust, and replace any damaged irrigation line—repair hoses and nozzles that may have developed clogs, leaks, or holes.
For more information, please visit the links below.
https://www.sunset.com/home-garden/garden-basics/spring-garden-checklist-to-do-april-may
https://www.finegardening.com/article/northern-california-february-garden-to-do-list
- Author: John Giehl, Master Gardener
“Fire and Flood: a People's History of Climate Change (from 1979 to the present)”
Eugene Linden. New York: Penguin Books, 2022
Reviewer John Giehl, Master Gardener
Around 1870 Mark Twain observed “The weather: everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it”. Could he ever imagine the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015? The sole U.N. document ever to be signed by each/ every of the world's 196 nations! Hmm.
Who should read this book? Future Jeopardy contestants? Someone that has noted the uptick in natural disasters (a world record 40 category- fives in 2008 alone)? Anyone who wonders/ worries if the earth will remain habitable for children yet to be born?
This book presents textbook potential. While twenty chapters and almost 300 pages, it is organized into six sections/ parts: I) setting the stage, II) the 1980s, III) the 1990s, IV) the new millennium, V) 2010s- things get real, VI) Where do we go from here?
The book is thick in facts/ concepts. Were this breakfast food it suggests crunchy chewy granola rather than soggy candied cereal. It is not light breezy summer beach read. The non-academic reader might wish there were headings, subheadings, summary, and/ or a study guide while the visual learner might wish there were graphs, charts, diagrams, and tables. There is no use of technical footnotes, citations are made within the text body. Lastly, it provides a comprehensive index and a list of suggested further reading.
The text is a who's who of prominent players/ personalities and chock full of interesting research findings, factoids, back stories, and anecdotes. Asides include discussion of the casualty/ property insurance industry, the political/ economic clout of the energy industry. There is enlightening explanation of the relationship between ice shelf melt, warming oceans and the jet stream. The diminished arctic/ tropic temp contrast apparently affects the jet stream in slower atmospheric waves of greater amplitude. Weather extremes therein are more frequent, severe, and of greater duration. For example, drought and storm are more intense, and last longer.
Chronology/ Milestones:
- 1965 LBJ asks if humans are conducting an “experiment with the atmosphere”?
- 1973 term “global warming” coined by Wallace Broecker.
- 1975 National Academy Sciences (NAS) reports possibility of “climate change.” However, is this change human- caused or a natural normal climate cycle?
- 1977 Jimmy Carter convenes an environmental commission.
- 1979 NAS shares findings that increase in CO2 will elevate global temperature by the year 2000.
- 1987 ozone layer hole discovered over Antarctica.
- Also 1987 drilling off Greenland reveals that climate can change, contrary to conventional understanding, both globally and rapidly. As CO2 doubles global temp will rise 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. For every one degree global crop production decreases ten percent.
- During 1990s nations dithered, remaining committed to traditional energy.
Despite our awakening the tale for next two decades is mixed bag. Fossil fuel is available/ cheap/ plentiful. Development of replacement renewable sources of energy viewed intermittently as eventually necessary, not yet unfeasible.
As you prepare for your upcoming appearance on Jeopardy. Imagine your double Jeopardy round comes down to one category, “Climate” … Questions please:
1) Covers ¼ the earth's surface retaining methane (28x potency of CO2). What is permafrost?
2) Florida coastline recedes 2k – 10k feet inland. What happens if sea level rises 1 more foot?
3) Causes 8.7 million deaths per year, shortens lifespan 1 year. What is hidden pollution cost?
4) GM. By 2035 what auto maker promises a 100% EV fleet?
5) 800,000 people. How many climate refugees fled to Greece in just one year?
6) By 2045. What is California's deadline for zero emission/ carbon neutral state?
Lastly, the book asks we remain wary of fake news, alternate facts, conspiracy theory, and social media as “authoritative sources” for climate information.
- Author: Jamie Davis, Master Gardener
Call, Email or Visit the Master Gardener Helpline Office and We Will Help
Just as plants spread their roots to take in “information” necessary for a healthy result, gardeners reach out to nourish their curiosity through horticultural study and experimentation. But what if you just need that little bit of extra help to get to the results you desire? One option available to you is to contact the Master Gardeners Helpline active in your county.
Working the Helpline as a first year MG has been an experience that began with apprehension but morphed into an activity to embrace. Time spent helping clients is time spent practicing how to access the resources we have been given and how to ask the right questions. Working as teams, we get to know our MG partners (it's a large group!) and use this opportunity to cement and enhance the vast amount of information given during training by the finest instructors.
One day in the Helpline office we received a request for information about a flowering bulb which the client received during the Winter holidays. We gave our best answer, realizing afterward that there is so much more to be learned about these magical powerhouses that store energy and pop out the glorious colors of Spring.
There is a plethora of science and research-based information available online and when answering a question, we often include links to beneficial sites in the University of CA Agricultural and Natural Resources world as well as other university extension sites. Past issues of this very blog will often bring answers to light. For example,
In the "Bulbs" blog published March of 2021 tells us that bulbs are modified stems which function as food storage for the potential flowering plants. Planting depth, drainage and sunlight are all important for both hardy and tender bulbs. Illustrations accompany the text.
In the "How do I select and plant flower bulbs for spring blooms?" blog published October of 2022 covers how to select bulbs to plant during the Fall for Spring flowering. The author touches upon arrangement of bulbs in the garden or in pots for glorious displays of color and texture as well as other aspects of planning a bulb garden.
In "What is a Blub?" from Michigan State University Extension, we learn that bulbs are geophytes; corms, rhizomes and true bulbs are all part of this group. We learn how to tell the differences among them, and an excellent table has been provided to assist.
Finally, if you've ever wondered how to “force” bulbs to do their magic during the Winter,
This article will give step-by-step instructions and a short list of supplies to ensure spirit-lifting blooms until Spring arrives again. This is also a great project for kids to take on with an adult.
As we head into Spring, feel free to contact the MG Helpline. We are here to assist!
Visit us during Help Desk hours at 2102 E Earhart Ave, Ste 200 Stockton, 95206. Click here for a map
- Call us at (209) 953-6112. If you call outside Help Desk hours, please leave both your phone number and email address so that we may respond to you in a timely manner.
- Email us at anrmgsanjoaquin@ucanr.edu. Please use email if you want to submit photos along with your question(s).
Helpful sites:
San Joaquin County UC Master Gardener Helpline Info
San Joaquin County UC Master Gardener Website
Please note that if you do not have access to online sources, we can send info to you via U.S. Mail.
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- Author: Morris Lacey, Master Gardener
When Marco Polo set out to find the truth behind the stories of herbs and spices of our wildest dreams, little did he realize how impactful his journey would be to the culinary practices of the world as he knew it. More importantly, his discoveries would focus the attention of others to find a trade route which would allow greater access to these biological riches. Amazingly, there was at least one herb/spice that would not immediately become apparent to the rest of the world until the Spanish discovered it in Central America and brought it back to Europe.
Vanilla
The Mayans are credited with being the first to intentionally grow an epiphytic, vine-like, orchidaceous plant that produced edible fruit pods. The vanilla plant is native to Central America and the Mayans used the fruit to soften the bitter taste of their chocolate beverages. The Aztecs also found it pleasing and used it to flavor xocoatl, their chocolate beverage, which was discovered and sent back to Spain by conquistador Hernando Cortes. Soon it became a popular spice in Europe.
Of course, you don't just reach up and pull the pods of a vanilla plant and eat them! No, the pod (bean) has no aroma until it has been cured. Curing and drying takes about 4 to 5 months and starts with subjecting them to nightly sweating and daily exposure to the sun for roughly 10 days. Once they're dry enough, they are graded and packed with the highest grade of bean exhibiting tiny crystals of vanillin on the outside of the pod.
Thomas Jefferson is attributed with bringing vanilla to the U.S. after serving as ambassador to France. His favorite ice cream flavor – vanilla!
Vanilla flowers range in color from white to cream to pale green. The plant is challenging to grow, but even more challenging to produce fruit in non-native surroundings as the flower is dainty and can only be pollinated by certain tiny bees. Commercially, these plants are hand pollinated, the process of which is credited to Edmund Albius, a 12-year-old slave from Reunion Island. He was actually sent to train many other growers in the art of vanilla pollination.
Labor cost being what it is, at one point in time this spice was second in cost only to saffron. We enjoy better pricing now as the process has become more refined and synthetic production of “vanillin” has proven to make imitation vanilla more accessible to our markets. However, imitation vanilla only replicates 1 of the 250 naturally occurring flavor compounds in true vanilla, but this one retains its flavor at higher temperatures than the natural vanilla.
The extract is made by steeping cured beans in a 35% alcohol/water solution. Beware that some commercially available vanilla extracts may contain sugar, dextrose, corn syrup (high fructose), propylene glycol, or glycerin.
“Vainilla” is the Mexican name for vanilla and is some of the best extract at the most reasonable price in the world. It is produced in the Vera Cruz region of Mexico and has a smooth, rich, creamy, and spicy flavor. Bourbon vanilla is named for the island near Madagascar on which it is produced. It has a rich, creamy flavor and has the thinnest sized beans. Tahitian vanilla is a different species of vanilla plant which has a more floral, fruity flavor. It is darkest in color and very fragrant, but not as flavorful as the other two. You may run into this spice also produced in and marketed as Hawaiian vanilla (pictured above). By the way, French vanilla is only a flavor of ice cream. It is differentiated from vanilla ice cream (Philadelphian) by incorporation of egg custard into the blend, adding a richer creaminess to the ice cream.
Antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antidepressant, fever-suppressant, and sedative are properties vanilla has been attributed over time. It was recorded to have been used by the Aztecs to control hysteria and depression (probably in sacrificial situations). During the 18th and 19th centuries, vanilla extract was drank to “exhilarate the brain” and increase muscular energy. (Maybe it was just the 35% alcohol?)
For more information, visit