- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Writer Alison Rood knew where to turn when she wondered about pulling out her lawn and decided to write about it. Her column in the San Francisco Chronicle included expert advice from a UCCE master gardener and a UCCE horticulture advisor.
The picture of her backyard looked quite nice to me, but she lamented that the lawn no longer served a useful purpose. Rood contacted master gardener Sandy Metzger.
Metzger told Rood she replaced most of her own lawn with drought-tolerant perennials and ornamental grasses. "The hummingbirds, bees and other insects go crazy in the garden practically all year long," Metzger is...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Considering the season, it is unsurprising that the media has chosen to cover two UCCE stories in which giving plays a key role.
The Napa Valley Register today covered a 4-H meeting in which the founder of a local community support group spoke. According to the article, Molly Banz created Molly’s Angels 13 years ago to help people in need.
4-H parent Molly Donohoe said she had been thinking about getting involved in the program for several years. When the family became involved in 4-H, she said, the idea took root.
“We love 4-H because the whole family is involved. It encompasses all the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Friday is a good day to wrap up the loose ends, so here are a variety of news articles in which UC Cooperative Extension wasn't a major part of the story, but in which UCCE academics made contributions.
Great Park
If you don't live in Orange County, you may not have heard of the "Great Park," a planned public facility on an old marine base to be double the size of New York's Central Park. Orange County UCCE director John Kabashima was at a recent planning meeting covered by the Orange County Register. The story said Kabashima offered help in planning and using food grown at the park to feed...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran a story Dec. 9 about the concerns of avocado and citrus farmers in the southernmost county about their dwindling water allocations. The story says Southern California is grappling with one of the worst water shortages in decades, and no one faces a more uncertain future than the region's estimated 3,500 to 4,000 farmers. According to the article, most of the farmers will have to reduce their water usage by 30 percent come January.
For comment, reporter Alex Roth went to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Gary Bender.
“I think we're going to have some people go belly-up,” Bender is quoted....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The KGO TV newscast in San Francisco ran a story yesterday about a virus that seems to be causing vineyard decline in syrah vines. The reporter spoke to Rhonda Smith, the UCCE viticulture farm advisor in Sonoma County. She said the problem isn't as serious in Sonoma County as it is in France because there are only about 1,800 acres of syrah being grown in the county, about 10 percent of the state's total.
According to the story posted on the TV station's Web site, Smith said she's advising the syrah vineyard owners to uproot their vines and replant.
"We're taking it on a case-by-case basis" she is quoted as...
