- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Sahara mustard, a resilient weed native to North Africa and the Mediterranean, is invading desert landscapes in the American Southwest, squeezing out beautiful wildflower displays that attract tourists and maintain the local ecology, reported the San Diego Union Tribune.
UC Cooperative Extension is testing methods of removing Sahara mustard, including hand weeding, hoes and herbicide. But these are only stopgap measures meant to keep the plant at bay in select spots.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to spray the herbicide across the entire Southwest,” said
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A small group of Inglewood residents this spring launched a learning garden in a local park, which is managed through weekly committee meetings, events and maintenance schedules, according to a story by the Los Angeles NBC affiliate.
"I prayed to God for something like this to happen," the story quoted 77-year-old Frank Scoggins, a garden co-founder. "It's hard to get kids interested, but we want to get more young people involved."
Inglewood is a southwest Los Angeles County community where the majority of residents are African-American and Latino, according to the 2010 Census. It was a farming community when it...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Urban Farming magazine gave its readers a "whirlwind introduction" to a few Los Angeles residents and programs that are working to bring back a modicum of the metropolis' agricultural past. The first vignette in "Urban Farm Road Trip, Los Angeles" featured Yvonne Savio and the UC Cooperative Extension Common Ground Program she coordinates.
Most counties in the country have a Cooperative Extension service that dispenses agricultural, horticultural and nutritional information, the article said. But the program in Los Angeles...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Late last month, USDA once again deregulated genetically modified alfalfa. The action prompted extensive news media coverage, with many articles centering on outcry from organic growers who are not comfortable with the idea of GMO/non-GMO coexistence.
According to a DTN blog, UC Davis Cooperative Extension alfalfa specialist Dan Putnam said he doesn't believe the deregulation puts organic alfalfa at...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Los Angeles County's UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener coordinator, Yvonne Savio, has coined a term to describe the her horticultural style: "circus gardening."
"If it's green and it grows after I've put it in, it stays," she told Pasadena Star-News reporter Michelle Mills. "You water it once or twice, and it's on its own. I tell my Master Gardeners that...