Debbie Schnur, UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener and Community Education Specialist

When I lived in Minnesota, fall was my least favorite time of year. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the changing colors of the leaves or the crisp fall air. I just dreaded the coming winter with its barrage of snowstorms and minus 30 degree wind chills. By the time December arrived, the sun set at 4:30 pm, and I felt like I was living in constant twilight.

Since I moved to southern California, I actually look forward to fall and the changes the season brings to the inland valleys–strong Santa Ana winds, refreshing rains, cooler days and even cooler nights, and leaves gradually turning subtle shades of brown, gold, and orange. Fall actually feels like a relief from the long, hot, dry summer. It's time to plant lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower once again, and worry less about watering and maintenance.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is composting. When I was a FoodCorps service member at Phelan Elementary, my students used to call me “Ms. Debbie the Garden Lady”. Now I'm becoming known as “Ms. Debbie the Compost Lady”! Not everyone is as excited as I am about composting, but I can't think of a better way to build community while building soil. In October, I gave an online presentation for the San Bernardino Master Gardeners titled “Composting for School and Community Gardens”. If you missed it, you can watch the video on the UCCE San Bernardino YouTube channel. The presentation covers the basics of composting and development of the Root 66 Community Garden composting systems.

The main difference between backyard composting and school and community composting is scale. More compost means a bigger composting system and more people to manage it. As stated in the Institute for Local Self-Reliance report, Community Composting Done Right, “the distinguishing feature of community composting is retaining organic materials as a community asset and scaling systems to meet the needs of a self-defined community while engaging, empowering, and educating the community.”

Although larger scale composting requires additional planning and organization, it can be a tremendously rewarding project for everyone involved. The main steps to begin composting include setting goals, identifying a team, developing a management plan, selecting and designing a site, and choosing a system. Once composting is underway, the focus shifts to collecting and managing the materials and managing the process and site. Connecting with experienced composters to share best practices will increase your chances of success. There's a wealth of composting expertise in the Inland Empire!

You may be wondering if it's a good idea to start composting in the fall or winter, and the answer is yes. Any time is a good time. As temperatures dip, simply insulate your compost pile with browns such as mulch or leaves to keep the interior warm. You can also cover the pile with a tarp and turn it less often (if at all). The decomposition process may slow down but will continue throughout the winter.

A new composting project I want to highlight is the Green Ambassadors program at Captain Leland F. Norton Elementary School in San Bernardino. The principal, Elizabeth Cochrane-Benoit, and I met during Master Gardener training and worked together to build the composting system at the Root 66 Garden this past year. Norton Elementary has been recognized as a 2021 California Green Ribbon School at the Silver level and is aiming to reach the Green Achievers level. The Green Ribbon Schools Awards Program honors achievement in reducing environmental impact, improving health and wellness, and providing effective environmental education. 

Sixth grade students in the Green Ambassadors program are learning how to audit their cafeteria waste and sort it into recycling, compost, and trash bins. Once they've mastered the process, they'll teach it to the rest of the school. The Community Composting for Green Spaces program (funded by CalRecycle) will help transfer the food waste in the compost bins to local gardens for composting. At a recent lunchtime audit, the fourth and sixth grade classes filled a 17-gallon container with uneaten food. I can't wait to see how much waste Norton Elementary teachers and students divert from landfills in the coming months!

What gardening and environmental projects do you have planned this fall and winter? Do you need support? If so, contact me at dschnur@ucanr. Happy composting!

Trees in Drought

By Barbara Dawson, MG, Drought Committee Member

 

Think about your yard. What is the most important plant there? Your vegetable garden, perennials, grass? Or, did you think of trees? In fact, trees are probably the single most important item in your yard. Trees add value to your property, keep you cool in our hot summers, provide fruit, and give birds and other animals cover.

 

Summers in Southern California are becoming hotter and seem to last longer into the (supposedly) cooler months of the fall. Drought remains a concern although Southern California appears to have more available water than the rest of California. Nevertheless, we must consider how to manage our yards during these hotter times with less water.

 

Of any plant in our yard trees are the most important element and one that needs to be a priority. Why? Trees are the longest living and as such there is a greater investment in time and effort. A vegetable garden can be established in a few months, a perennial might take months to one or two years, but a tree (depending on the cultivar) three years plus. Some slower growing, longer living trees can take five years to become established and still only be a few feet high.

 

Ideally, during the summer trees should be watered weekly. If a tree is in the middle of a lawn chances are it's not receiving enough water. Lawn watering is superficial. Trees require deep watering at the drip line (the drip line is the area around a tree where the canopy edge reaches). The drip line may not be close to the trunk, depending on the size of the tree. Water should be given slowly over a period of time to allow for deep absorption. Knowing how well your soil retains water would be beneficial. This also prevents surface roots and encourages deeper rooting. Drip irrigation, a soaker hose, or a plain old garden hose can be used. Younger trees may require as much as 15 gallons per week in the hottest times. More mature, well established trees require three to five deep waterings throughout the summer. Fruiting trees require consistent, deep watering to maintain the crop. Symptoms of a water deficit might be dull (looking), wilting, curled, yellow leaves, and/or smaller new leaves. Plant new trees in the cooler, wetter time of winter.

 

Before planting any new trees, think about its water requirement. Obviously, fruiting trees will require more

water but when planting ornamentals consider how much water that tree will use both as it grows and when it matures. There are many trees available that require little water when mature. In other words, don't buy a tree that is suited for the pacific northwest or east coast where more water is available. Some good drought, heat, and pest resistant choices for this area:

 

‘Red Push' pistache (Pistacia × 'Red Push')

‘Bubba' Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis 'Bubba')

‘Desert Museum' palo verde (Parkinsonia × 'Desert Museum' )unless you are in a shothole borer prone area)

 

Find just the right tree for just the right location visit these trustworth interactive websites: https://selectree.calpoly.edu/ https://inlandvalleygardenplanner.org/ or https://calscape.org/search.php

Gretchen Heimlich-Villalta, UCCE Master Gardener and PhD student at UC Riverside 

 

What Is IPM?

If you've never heard of IPM, you're not alone. I get this question from folks ranging from new gardeners to graduate students in plant pathology. But suppose you're looking for the best way to deal with the weeds muddling around in your garden, or the aphids having a party on your Lantana. You could let loose an entire bottle of Roundup®, or cut the Lantana to the ground, and just be done with the whole thing. But if you want to deal with the problem rationally and responsibly, you're going to want to know about IPM—a.k.a. integrated pest management. Let's start with a definition. There is a lot to this definition, so I'd like to unpack it a bit.??

“Integrated pest management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines, and treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organisms. Pest control tools are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, to beneficial and nontarget organisms, and to the environment.”1 Mary Louise Flint, IPM in Practice: Principles and Methods of Integrated Pest Management ?

An Ecosystem-Based Strategy It's easy to skim over the ecosystem component of IPM; after all, it's a broad concept, and perhaps a bit abstract. But it's really important, so let's try to make it as simple as possible. Every ecosystem (the forest, the ocean, your garden, even your soil) is made up of individual members that do a couple things:

1. They get their energy from/feed on something(s) else.

2. They give their energy to/are fed on by something(s) else. ?

Together, the members of an ecosystem have roles that keep that system in balance and contribute to its overall function; they also provide services to humans. In your garden, this can include oxygen production, air and water purification, water capture and cycling, food production, climate regulation...I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Only a small portion of an ecosystem's inhabitants are pests of plants or humans. As gardeners, we are custodians of our garden ecosystems. It's a big responsibility—and an awesome opportunity!

Long-Term Prevention through a Combination of Techniques

What does long-term pest prevention look like? Suppose your favorite avocado tree is getting a bit too much water. Your new gardener has been diligently raking up the leaves under it every week, leaving the soil tidy and quite exposed. A home soil test kit would tell you the soil pH is also a little high, and it's gotten low in nitrogen. As a result, your tree is looking stressed; the roots are craving oxygen, and root rot (Phytophthora cinnamomi) zoospores are swimming through that excess water to take advantage of your vulnerable tree. Text BoxA picture containing tree, outdoor, sky, plant Description automatically generatedAs you start to see wilting and dieback, you consider your options. The canopy looks wilted and dry, so you consider giving it more water. Maybe you recognize the symptoms of root rot, and know more water is the last thing your sad avocado needs. A short-term solution might be to fumigate the soil. That could kill the Phytophthora, but would also kill off a lot of the soil microbes, including Phytophthora's competitors, making it likely that in the long-term the root rot will return with a vengeance. You could hire a tree care company to do a trunk injection of phosphonate2. You could do this today, and this would provide some short-term control as well, but if you're not dealing with the other contributing factors, there's a good chance the root rot will return. What would a long-term solution look like? Embracing your new IPM knowhow, you look at the big picture. You look up the UC IPM Avocado Pest Management Guidelines2 and learn that Phytophthora cinnamomi thrives in overly wet conditions. You cut back your irrigation, and start sticking your fingers in the soil once a week to make sure you're getting the water right. You apply gypsum, and an acidifying nitrogen fertilizer like ammonium sulfate at the recommended rate you find on the UC IPM website3 to suppress the Phytophthora and bring down the soil pH. You read about how important mulch and leaf litter are for avocados, and tell your gardener to stop raking up the leaves. You even give your tree the gift of 4–6 inches of mulch. This will discourage Phytophthora and encourage growth of beneficial soil microbes, and will also help lower the pH and improve any salinity issues you may have. Finally, you decide to hold off on the phosphonate trunk injection until May, when the application will be most effective2. And if your tree is looking better by then, you may not inject it at all.

Monitoring

In agriculture, farmers who practice IPM will pay close attention to details like pest numbers, natural enemies, and weather and field conditions. The home gardener will start by inspecting their plants regularly for damage and getting to know their common pests. Identifying plant pests can be a daunting task, but it's worth the effort. It's crucial to identify what's stressing your plant before attempting to treat the problem in order to avoid affecting non-target organisms. And by recognizing pests early, it may be possible to, say, knock back aphid populations with a shot of water from a hose instead of spraying insecticide once the population has gotten out of control.

So, Why IPM?

Using a combination of treatments is usually more effective than any single treatment for controlling pests. By optimizing cultural practices and using biological and mechanical controls, we can reduce or eliminate the need for chemicals. Integrated pest management allows us to reduce the damage of plant pests, and at the same time reduce the damage of pest treatments to our garden ecosystems, humans, and the environment. As thoughtful custodians of our landscape ecosystems, we can optimize plant health—and at the same time protect non-target organisms ranging from bacteria and fungi to birds, bees, and people. And this is a beautiful thing. For specific help with IPM in your own garden and landscape, contact a UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener volunteer at mgsanbern@ucanr.edu

 

Author info: Gretchen Heimlich-Villalta is an ISA™ certified arborist who has been a San Bernardino County Master Gardener since 2014. She received her AS in Integrated Pest Management from Mt. San Antonio College, where she has helped teach IPM since 2020. She received BA degrees in Creative Writing and Photography, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology at the University of California, Riverside, where she is researching citrus root and soil health; she also helps manage the Strub Avenue Community Garden in Whittier. Sources: 1. Flint, M. L. IPM in Practice, 2nd Edition: Principles and Methods of Integrated Pest Management. (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2012). 2. Eskalen, A. & Faber, B. A. Phytophthora Root Rot. UC IPM https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/avocado/Phytophthora-root-rot/ (2016). 3. Managing Pests in Gardens: Fruit: Cultural Tips: Fertilizing avocados—UC IPM. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/CULTURAL/avocadofert.html.

Master Gardener Spotlight: Phoebe Frankeberger

This month we are spotlighting UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener Phoebe Frankeberger. She has been with the program for since 2018 and has been a wonderful part of our newsletter team. Her forte is putting all the elements together so the newsletter is reader-friendly and attractive. I have had a behind the scenes tour of what it takes to get our newsletter together and it's a lot of work!! Phoebe's ability to take a bunch of links and pages and bring them to life puts a smile on my face every month! We reach out to the public in many ways from our online presentations to our social media to our in person events, but our newsletter has become one the best ways to reach out to you, our community, in such a large county! We hope each month you are able to find interesting blogs and links and are able to find classes that help you grow as gardeners. If you have attended a class because you saw it on our newsletter, or learned something new from one of our blogs, or are reading this now then we have Phoebe to thank for it!! She is a wonderful, kind and insightful person, and she is able to bring these qualities to our newsletter each month! Enjoy our interview with Phoebe

- Maggie O'Neill, Master Gardener Program Coordinator

Tell us a little about yourself.

 

I am a wife and mom of two adult daughters. I volunteered with a number of organizations prior to Covid quarantines, but due to some unrelated health issues, my volunteering has been limited to the MG newsletter since that time. I am also a CPA who is now semi-retired but still work for a few chosen clients. My husband is also a Master Gardener and a CPA. One of my designations as a partner of our accounting firm was Creative Director. I had designed and set up our website and any advertising we did. So, when I learned that the Master Gardeners needed help creating a new newsletter, I was happy to sign up, since I've always enjoyed that creative process.

 

Why did you decide to be a MG?

As empty nesters we were always looking for activities and ran across an ad in the Chino Hills Champion newspaper in 2018 for the Master Gardener class. Being known as avid landscape gardeners around our neighborhood, we signed up for the class. It was so enlightening. We learned about sustainable landscaping, healthy communities, lawn types and water usage, edible gardening, germination, propagation, composting, invasive plants, effects of climate change on our trees and communities, and so much more. I had a small container edible garden the last couple of years and my herbs are convenient to have any time I need them. We have a couple of butterfly plants now and get excited every time our backyard is filled with butterflies. We are more aware of our water usage and more aware of plant types and needs. I am able to diagnose problems much more easily – or at least know where to look to find the answers. I've been able to propagate more plants and have loved growing plants from seed versus store bought ones in pre-planted pots. I've also become more aware of my environment and what it means to be able to compost and recycle. We've changed our life in many ways (and not just because our daughters have pushed us) but because we've become more knowledgeable about the consequences and the ease of doing things a bit differently.

 

What are your gardening passions?

I love all flowers that make your home look and feel well loved and taken care of. Landscaping with lots of color is my passion. Not really planned out color, like you'd find around a hotel – just patches here and there, like you'd find in nature. I love bunches of plants overlapping each other.

 

What is a tidbit or two you've learned as a MG that the public reading our newsletter could gain from?

I love every part of our newsletter. Each part is significant to any gardener and our San Bernardino community. The calendar section pivoted to online classes due to COVID-19, but is in the process of changing back again to more in person events. I am so pleased with the “MG Spotlight” feature because it highlights so many different interests of so many different people that have a love for gardening and are drawn to teaching others their knowledge. “Janet's Jottings” and “Coordinator's Corner” are a bit of science and a bit of fun. They are always great reads and their content is easily applied. Our “What's Bugging Your Garden” highlights the University of California's Integrated Pest Management program and all that's available to help you via its website. Our guest writers have been awesome highlighting many different issues from invasive plants, sustainable roses or other UCCE programs such as the Master Food Preserver program or the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education (EFNEP) program. I also love the UCCE Master Gardener Helpline, which is accessible by email or phone to the public to pose any gardening related question or issue they wish. We highlight this great public service every month because we know its benefits.

 

What attracted you to serving as the chair of the MG newsletter committee?

I love that creative process, which is way outside accounting and taxes. It allows me to play.

 

What advice would you give someone considering becoming a UCCE MG?

Do it for yourself – that knowledge base is so important if you have any interest in gardening and want University of California science and research based information. Most of us are limited in our knowledge, we keep doing the same thing over and over each year, even though it's not working as well as we want. The Master Gardener program will open up new territory for you, whether it's soil management or pest management or anything in between. Besides preparing you with a breadth of knowledge to share with the public, it with provide you with personal knowledge and insight to be able to improve your own gardening and landscaping needs and desires.

 

Anything else you'd like to add?

 

The newsletter is only a year and a half old. It is still growing and changing, which I hope never stops. We have new Master Gardener volunteers all the time which keep things fun and fresh. I would encourage you, as a member of the public, to consider applying to the Master Gardener program. Who knows? If you have an interest in writing or designing, you may be our newest new team member! And, you Master Gardeners also reading this, contact Maggie if you'd like to join our team!