- Author: Guy B Kyser
Capitol Public Radio broadcast a report on spotted spurge this morning, including an interview with UCCE Farm Advisor Whitney Brim-DeForest.
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
In what has been dubbed “dandelion-gate,” members of the Washington State legislature spent 20 minutes complaining about weeds on the capital's lawn “In all the years I've been here I've never seen so many dandelions all over,” Sen. Mike Padden (R) said. “Is it your policy not to treat dandelions?” The department responsible for landscaping responded that the legislature cut its budget and now it only has 15 people covering the nearly 500 acre campus.
More and more, cities and public agencies are being asked to review and revise (and in some cases develop) their pesticide use policies. Often...
- Author: Clyde Elmore
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Do weed populations change during a drought? Does drought favor certain species? Does annual or perennial species matter? During this four year period of drought in California, have they changed? What are the populations of annual and perennial weeds? With a limiting growth factor, in this case water, weeds become more prominent and which of them will or could disappear?
In urban landscapes, where turf grass areas are being renovated, or in non-irrigated land that has been farmed, but furloughed, or in non-cropped roadsides or wasteland, are we seeing life-cycle species shifts? Or is it that we see a loss or decreased competitiveness of annual species, thus perennial species can be observed?
I will give the example of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Here's something from Jeannette Warnert [(559) 240-9850, jewarnert@ucanr.edu] via UC ANR News :: July 15, 2015
The drought needs not be a death sentence for your lawn
While a golden brown lawn is seen as a badge of honor to some residents of drought-stricken California, in fact, they are doing more harm to the environment than good, says UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
/h2>- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
On April 1, 2015 Governor Brown mandated a 25% water reduction in urban water use. While you may have seen the news articles about some private citizens or even some public areas being irrigated like water is an unlimited resource, my observation is that most homes and public areas are in fact reducing their outdoor water use.
However, there were some problems that are coming along with that. I first noticed it when I was walking to the UC Riverside campus on April 14. The landscapers had cut off the water to the medians so all the turf was dead but now some drought tolerant weeds were growing. I think the campus had cut off irrigation to “non-essential” areas so that they could maintain adequate...