- Author: Lanie Keystone
With spring so warmly upon us, thoughts turn to meaningfully entertaining children during summer vacation. And what better way to keep young children fascinated than to pique their curiosity about the world around them?
The classic book, From Seed to Plant by Master Teacher of young children, Gail Gibbons, fits the bill perfectly. Author Gibbons has written over 100 books and knows her way around young children and how to keep them focused and engaged.
The main question asked by this wonderful book is: “Flowers, trees, fruits—plants--are all around us—but where do they come from?
Through simple language and bright illustrations, Gibbons answers this key question with verve. She introduces basic botany vocabulary which is explained and reinforced by colorful diagrams. In this way, plant parts and a wide variety of seeds come to life in service of clarifying the basics of plant life on earth.
The book is filled with engaging growing projects, which make the book a perfect partner with kitchen counter and backyard science exploration. This paperback book is a must-have for anyone caring for or working with young children ages 4-7. Find a copy at the library or bookstore and be ready to take summer on and work some magic with your young buddies.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Although training is required to become a University of California Master Gardener, the benefits of gardening can be experienced by anyone and everyone.
“As long as you're willing to get your hands dirty,” said Laurie Menosky, a UC Master Gardener volunteer in Orange County, “you can learn to grow all sorts of things.”
In early April, Menosky partnered with ETN Medical Infusion (a clinic in Orange County) and the Sustainability Program for Student Housing at UC Irvine to teach students how to grow tomatoes. Menosky welcomed all in attendance, including families with toddlers who seemed fascinated by the 60 tomato plants atop one of the tables in the room.
The UC Master Gardener Program is a part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. During her presentation, Menosky taught participants how to choose varieties that fit their taste and growing environment, how to cultivate a thriving environment, and how to control pests and diseases using integrated pest management practices.
“We have 16,000 residents at UCI and sustainability is one of our values. One of the ways we engage students is through on-campus gardens,” said Rachel Harvey, sustainability program manager for UCI Student Housing and a UC Master Gardener volunteer in Orange County.
UC Irvine has one teaching garden reserved for undergraduate learning, and three gardens operated and maintained by graduate students. “I was on the waiting list for a garden plot for a while, but it was totally worth the wait,” said Johanna Rinaman, a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying physical chemistry.
While the highlight of the event for many people was the opportunity to take a tomato plant home, another important takeaway was how gardening can be a good activity for your mental health. Sarah Nghiem, family medicine specialist at ETN Medical Infusion, who worked closely with Menosky, was instrumental in developing the mental health content for the day, encouraging attendees to attempt gardening with a mental health perspective.
Nghiem and her team received funding from the Orange County Health Care Agency through the Mental Health Services Act to work with transitional aged students (15-24 years-old) on understanding the importance of mental health, which led to the collaboration between UC Irvine, her alma mater, and the UC Master Gardeners of Orange County.
“I didn't do any gardening during the winter, and I felt a lot more anxious and depressed during that time,” Rinaman said. “I know gardening improves mental health because I've immediately felt a difference whenever I spend time with plants.”
Rinaman, whose father taught her a lot of what she knows about gardening, said that having access to a 4 feet by 6 feet plot to grow her own food is one of the many things she loves about UC Irvine.
Like Rinaman, Menosky turns to gardening to decompress, especially during the long days of summer. Teaching others about the physical and mental benefits of gardening gives her an opportunity to share her experience and, hopefully, help others find new ways to manage stress.
“We often have attendees come back years later telling us how our information has helped them and how much more they are enjoying their time in their gardens,” she said.
To conclude her presentation, Menosky instructed participants to line up for their own tomato plant. Attendees took their plants outside to transfer them from a small pot to a grow bag – a type of container that helps root structure development.
Cassie Ekwego, a third-year transfer student studying civil engineering, couldn't hide her excitement after carefully lifting her plant. “I don't think I realized how attentive you need to be when working with plants,” said Ekwego, reflecting on what she learned from Menosky's presentation.
Now that she has her own plant to care for in her own home, Ekwego is eager to put her new knowledge to the test. “I love tomatoes, but this is going to be a huge responsibility for me,” she said.
Randy Musser, UC Master Gardener program coordinator for Orange County, said that while he enjoys talking to avid gardeners, bringing gardening to new people in the community is special to him. “This tomato workshop is particularly exciting for me because it is an opportunity for the UC Master Gardeners to grow our connection to UCI and young people just starting off on their gardening journey,” said Musser.
With a generous contribution from UC Master Gardener volunteer Sheila Peterson, Musser was able to purchase enough supplies to help attendees, like Ekwego, jumpstart their gardening experience.
Students, whose stress levels can skyrocket throughout the school year, value opportunities to be outdoors, try something new and be in community. “The garden is a different type of classroom. It's a place where students can learn and experiment, hopefully in a way that reduces stress,” said Harvey of UCI Student Housing.
Ekwego, who tried gardening for the first time while volunteering at UC Irvine's teaching garden, is just one of the many students inspired by their experiences. “Gardening reminds me that it's OK to get my hands dirty,” Ekwego said.
- Author: David Layland, U.C. Master Gardener of Napa County
Saturday, May 18, is the date for this year's Climate-Friendly Garden Tour, a partnership between Napa County Resource Conservation District, City of Napa Water Division, and the University of California Master Gardeners of Napa County.
The tour is from 10 am to 4 pm and includes 10 private home gardens plus the Napa County Master Gardeners' demonstration garden at Las Flores Community Center in Napa. At Las Flores, you can tour garden areas devoted to succulents, pollinator plants, California natives and low water/low maintenance plants.
The 10 private home gardens come in all shapes and sizes, and all are within the City of Napa.
Also included in the tour are workshops at several of the gardens. One workshop will address the effect of tilling on soil health and water absorption; another will focus on irrigation conversion. The one I would most like to see is the “Bury Your Undies” display at Las Flores Community Center, designed to show how to measure healthy soil life.
Also at Las Flores, Master Gardeners will conduct a demonstration of the “Heat Island Effect,” using temperature guns on ground surfaces; a demonstration titled “Bread and Flour,” highlighting the effect of tilling on the soil's ability to absorb and retain water; and another on “Good Bugs, Bad Bugs.” There will also be a free compost giveaway at Las Flores.
What is a climate-friendly garden tour? To the organizers, it is an opportunity to showcase gardens, both residential and commercial, that are climate-smart and water-wise. That means you are likely to encounter gardens on the tour that incorporate drought-tolerant and native plants, or that exhibit good soil-health practices. You may see rain catchment systems, clever use of recycled materials or greywater, smart irrigation systems or model veggie gardens.
I haven't seen all the gardens on the tour, but I have seen the one in the Carneros District. It's my own. The only negative to having your garden featured on the tour is that you can't get around to see all the others. I'll be in my garden, welcoming visitors, all day.
I was probably one of the first gardeners to volunteer my garden for this year's tour. I'm not sure why I wanted to be on the tour as my garden is my personal and private “happy place,” to be enjoyed primarily by my wife, Jeanine, and me. All serious gardeners feel a sense of pride in what they have created, but we are rarely competitive. Instead, we enjoy learning from one another.
My home garden includes flowers and vegetables, of course, but also berries, olive and fruit trees and a vineyard that's currently being replanted. Our 13 goats aren't part of the garden, but they are great at weed control. If we aren't careful, they will nosh on anything within reach. We also have 13 chickens that do a great job of providing manure year-round.
To me, a garden is never complete. Mine is constantly evolving, usually due to my latest whim. A few years ago, I converted part of my vegetable garden to native plants. This year I converted part of my vegetable garden to raspberries and boysenberries. After constructing a fence to separate the goats from the garden and vineyard areas, I was left with a perfect area for four more fruit trees. Also new this year is a rainwater catchment system designed and constructed by Jeanine.
One of the tenets of climate-friendly gardening is using recycled materials. I started doing this years ago when I used scrap lumber left behind by the previous property owner to make raised beds. At a friend's garden, I noticed she planted flowers in many types of old containers. I realized I had a lot of old containers myself, so I followed suit. I began planting flowers in the old blue bins no longer used by Napa Recycling.
Most gardeners in Napa Valley irrigate their gardens, often with fancy gadgets such as timers. If this is smart irrigation, then what I do must be dumb irrigation. I prefer hand watering as it gives me a chance to monitor each plant at least once a week. Fortunately, hand watering requires just one hand, so in the evening, I can use the other for my wine glass.
Although I have not seen all the other gardens on the tour, I do know a little about them. Almost everyone has removed their lawn through the City's Cash for Grass program. Every garden on the tour includes California native plants. Attracting pollinators is an objective of almost every garden, and most of the gardeners have taken steps to lower water use. Two gardens feature apiaries, and one features a rain garden. Another gardener is an avid seed saver.
Tickets for the garden tour are $5 and will be available at the Las Flores Community Center beginning at 10 am on May 18. Don't miss this great opportunity to see what your Napa neighbors have done to make their gardens more climate conscious.
Workshop: Join the UC Master Gardener of Napa County for a workshop on “Worm or Backyard Composting” on Saturday, May 18, from 10 am to noon, at Napa Valley College, Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Avenue, St. Helena. Learn about backyard composting, hot composting, cool composting, and worm composting—choose your own adventure. Attendees may purchase a discounted backyard compost bin for $20 or take a home a free worm compost toolkit, including the worms. Register here.
Garden Tour: Enjoy a “Climate-Friendly Garden Tour” on Saturday, May 18, from 10 am to 4 pm, sponsored by Napa County Resource Conservation District. Tour 11 private and public Napa Valley gardens that showcase climate-friendly and water-wise landscapes. Mini workshops will be held at some sites throughout the day. Purchase a ticket to receive the tour map.
Library Talk: Join UC Master Gardeners and Napa County Library for “All About Lavender,” on Thursday, June 6, from 7 pm to 8 pm, via Zoom. Have you ever wondered what you can do with that gorgeous lavender growing in your backyard? Learn what lavender needs to thrive, and harvest ideas for how to incorporate it in your own homemade creations. Register to receive the Zoom link.
Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.
- Author: Drew Tomasyan, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
Have you ever wondered how you can learn about plant care, water conservation, botany, tree pruning, soil amendments, lawn alternatives, pollinators, pest management and more while making friends and being part of a mission driven team? Become a Napa County Master Gardener, and you'll see.
The Master Gardener program is offered by the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE). Programs vary slightly by county, but all must meet certain UCCE requirements.
Master Gardeners are volunteers whose main purpose is to develop and deliver educational programs to the community, using research-based knowledge and information.
The Master Gardener training is a 12-week commitment. Classes meet weekly for 4-1/2 hours. (Don't worry—there are snacks and breaks.) When you enroll, you pay a nominal fee and receive four excellent books, the foundation for most of the assignments. Homework consists of a lot of reading and highlighting, but there are also interesting videos to watch most weeks, experiments to do, and plant problems to diagnose. You can expect to spend 8 to 10 hours weekly on homework.
A field trip is usually part of the program, along with many interesting class speakers and demonstrations. In one of my favorite classes, a top entomologist from UC Davis educated us about insects, then we looked at specimens through microscopes to learn their distinguishing features.
In another class, other Master Gardeners spoke about aspects of climate change. There was even a scavenger hunt at two local nurseries.
I can't say enough about our instructors. Each class tapped into their collective knowledge and experience, and they were always very supportive of us trainees. There is a final exam, but it is an open-book, take-home test and you have a week to complete it. It's a reflection on the quality of our instructors that every person in our class passed. Once you pass, you are assigned one of your instructors as a mentor, which is helpful as you start investigating and signing up for Master Gardener events.
Master Gardeners serve the community in many different ways. We conduct workshops on the value of composting and vermiculture, on garden design and vegetable planting, on pollinators and plant pests, and on plant types like natives and succulents. We lead educational tree-identification walks and rose-care classes in Fuller Park, and deliver monthly library talks on a variety of gardening subjects.
Master Gardener volunteers maintain a Help Desk at the UCCE office in Napa. We also staff a booth at the Napa and St. Helena farmers markets if you have questions or problems or need research-based advice.
Master Gardeners advise about how to create and maintain a low-water garden, how to be more fire-wise with your landscape, and how to be sure you are putting the right plant in the right place. Check out our website for the schedule of our workshops and events. Many are offered at no charge.
To maintain their certification, Master Gardeners must volunteer a certain number of hours each year and accumulate the required hours of continuing education. These requirements are easy to achieve. You earn volunteer hours every time you help with a workshop or activity, and the hours add up fast. Master Gardeners earn continuing education hours by attending monthly seminars, which are always fun and feature great speakers. So far, every activity I have volunteered for has been a source of personal continuing education.
Last month, I volunteered at the Master Gardener Tomato Festival. It was a cold and rainy Saturday, but what a cohesive team we had. There was no complaining, just camaraderie and a lot of enthusiasm. Every Master Gardener event I have ever participated in has been a model of teamwork and cooperation.
I became a Master Gardener last year, Class of 2023, and I am honored to be a part of this incredible organization. As a long time Master Gardener friend, Carole Kent, told me, "I came for the gardening information and stayed for the people."
If you are interested in becoming a Master Gardener, you will find information about applying on our website soon. In the meantime, I hope to see you at a few of our workshops. You won't be disappointed.
Workshop: Join the UC Master Gardener of Napa County for a workshop on “Growing Olives” on Saturday, May 11, from 10 am to noon, at a private grove in Napa. Learn about olive varieties and how to plant, fertilize, irrigate, and prune these trees. Olive pests and diseases will also be discussed. Register to receive the workshop location.
Workshop: Join the UC Master Gardener of Napa County for a workshop on “Worm or Backyard Composting” on Saturday, May 18, from 10 am to noon, at Napa Valley College, Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Avenue, St. Helena. Learn about backyard composting, hot composting, cool composting, and worm composting—choose your own adventure. Attendees may purchase a discounted backyard compost bin for $20 or take a home a free worm compost toolkit, including the worms. Register here.
Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.
- Author: Lauren Fordyce
There are many types of “good bugs” commonly found in the garden or landscape. In integrated pest management (IPM) we refer to “good bugs” as “natural enemies” or “beneficial organisms”. Natural enemies can include insects, but also mites, pathogens, and vertebrates like birds and lizards. They can kill or reduce pest populations by feeding directly on the pest, parasitizing the pest, or infecting the pest with a pathogen, reducing the need for pesticides.
Keep an eye out for the common natural enemies listed below and learn to recognize their egg and immature stages too!
- Lady beetles (ladybugs). There are about 200 different species of lady beetles in California. Many species feed on soft-bodied pest insects like aphids, soft scales, mealybugs, whiteflies, mites, and psyllids. They will also eat pest insect eggs and larvae.
- Soldier beetles (leatherwings) adults feed on aphids and other soft-bodied insects. Their larvae live in the ground and feed on pest eggs, larvae, and pupae in the soil.
- Lacewings feed on mites, aphids, caterpillars, leafhoppers, mealybugs, psyllids, scales, and thrips! While some adult lacewings can be predacious, their larvae are most useful in pest control.
- Syrphid flies, also called hover flies or flower flies, resemble bees and are pollinators. Their larvae feed on aphids, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied insects.
- Assassin bugs can feed on caterpillars and other larvae, as well as adults and nymphs of beetles. They are known to attack just about any insect, but can bite people if provoked.
- Spiders. While many people fear spiders, they can actually help control many pests in and around the home and garden. Flower spiders, jumping spiders, and wolf spiders are examples of common beneficial garden spiders.
To learn more about natural enemies, see these resources:
- Pest Notes: Biological Control and Natural Enemies of Invertebrates (fact sheet)
- Natural Enemies Gallery
- Natural Enemies and Beneficial Insects: What Are They? (webinar)