The Mariposa County UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program got a shot in the arm Saturday when the Merced Sun-Star ran a lengthy feature about the extensive gardens of one of the program's 50 volunteers, Elna Philbert.

Philbert's one-acre "Tannenbaum Forest" got its start 22 years ago with a Colorado blue spruce she received in memory of her late husband, the article said. Each year since, she purchased a living Christmas tree and planted it in the yard.

In time, the retired teacher added a Japanese maple grotto, grasslands, a presidential rose garden and a 49er corner, decorated with rusted shovels, buckets and...