- Author: Joy Humphrey
When I buy a rose, I consider several things: color, growth habit, location requirements. These are all important aspects to ponder to ensure a thriving plant and a visually appealing garden. But something else I consider, which has nothing to do with gardening success, is the name. I love rose names. They can be serious (‘Hope for Humanity') or silly (‘Yabba Dabba Doo'). They can evoke grand emotions (‘Falling in Love') or the desire for a cocktail (‘Tequila Supreme'). They can memorialize a famous person (‘Frida Kahlo') or a famous place (‘Disneyland'). The depth and breadth of rose names make giving a rose as a gift uniquely suitable. For a friend's 60th birthday, I gave her ‘Golden Celebration.' When my girlfriend gave birth to twins, her sister gave her ‘Double Delight.' Before I moved to Northern California, my sister's going away gift to me was ‘Burst of Joy.' In the same way, a rose can be a perfect way to memorialize an event. When Queen Elizabeth II died, my husband reported the news to me and then went directly to his computer and ordered ‘Queen Elizabeth.' I never fail to think of these memories when tending to my roses; it makes gardening chores more like meditation.
Not every rose in my garden has a meaningful name to me. I bought ‘Sunbelt South Africa' because it was a patio rose, I liked the apricot color, and that's what the garden center had available. It was a similar situation with ‘Westerland' and ‘Eleganza Sunny Sky.' All lovely roses, but the names don't resonate with me, which is probably why I continually forget what they are called. However, there are two roses on my wish list whose names I know I would never forget were I to add them to my garden. One is ‘Ketchup & Mustard,' a stunning red and yellow bloomer with a name I find hilarious in its unpretentiousness. The second is ‘Bloom of Ruth,' a rose I saw at the Chelsea Flower Show in London years ago and have coveted ever since, but I've not been able to find it in the United States. Ruth was my mother's name, and I would love to be able to remember her as I tended to her rose.
- Author: Maureen Clark
Sunchoke - Jerusalem Artichoke - Sunroot, Helianthus tuberosus
Edible Tuber
Plant 4-6 inches deep and 12-18 inches apart
Grows 6-10 tall, Needs staking. Use a tee pee or tomato cage
Grow in a Wine Barrel or extra-large pot, because they are a giving plant
1 tuber makes 20 tubers
Regular water until the roots form, then water deeply once a week
6 or more hours of Sun
1” of mulch on top of the soil
Harvest 3½ -5 months later (110-150 days)
Beautiful Yellow Daisy shaped flowers. Cut the flowers before seeds develop! Or you'll have far too many! Perennial that continues to give you tubers for many, many years. Sweet, nutty tasting. A very healthy veggie that can be substituted for potatoes or carrots. Eat them raw. Wash and slice them super thin. Add to salads, dip them in your favorite hummus recipe. Try roasted. Cut them ½ inch thick. Toss them in olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook in 425? oven for around 20 minutes. Boil them in slightly salty water, until tender. Plunge into a ice water bath. Peel immediately. Slice to desired thickness. Toss with butter, salt and pepper and parsley.
Dear Colleagues,
It is with deep sadness that I share the news that our colleague Ryan Tompkins, forestry and natural resources advisor for Plumas, Sierra and Lassen counties, passed away on May 6, while receiving treatment for cancer. David Lile, Ryan's supervisor, has been in touch with his family, who granted me permission to inform our UC ANR community. Ryan is survived by his wife Michelle and sons Emmett and Sterling.
Ryan was well known for his warmth, kindness and quick humor. Among his colleagues, he was admired for his ability to explain technical information in creative ways that would be interesting and relatable to his audience. Ryan also loved to conduct extension work in settings that people would enjoy – sometimes this was over his BBQ, sometimes at Forestry Camp, but most often while hiking through his beloved forest to demonstrate an important point.
Ryan was a true leader and had active research and extension collaborations throughout ANR, UC Berkeley, the U.S. Forest Service, private timber and many local organizations. On topics ranging from reforestation to forest health to fire resilience, Ryan was highly respected and valued by his peers and the many communities he served. Those of you who didn't work with Ryan directly may remember his excellent town hall presentation in 2022 about making communities more resilient to wildfire.
I especially enjoyed my time with Ryan during our CARET trip to Washington, D.C. in 2023, and I will greatly miss him – as a consummate Cooperative Extension advisor and as a wonderful person. My condolences to all of you across UC ANR who called Ryan a colleague and friend.
Those wishing to send well-wishes to Ryan's family are asked to mail cards to the Plumas-Sierra Cooperative Extension office, care of Samantha Brown, 208 Fairgrounds Road, Quincy, CA, 95971. Plans are coming together for a memorial, and we will provide more details as they become available.
For those seeking support for your own well-being, I encourage you to contact the Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP), which provides cost-free and confidential counseling and referral services to all UC ANR employees.
Glenda Humiston
Vice President
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
May 17, 2024
Findings from twenty years of soil health research in Five Points, CA have been published in the University of California's California Agriculture peer-reviewed journal's May 1, 2024 issue. https://doi.org/10.3733/001c.94714.
This work has been a large collaborative effort involving twenty-one UC and non-UC coauthors. It began in 1998 initially as an effort to evaluate the potential of reduced disturbance tillage systems to reduce dust emissions from annual cropping systems that are common in California's San Joaquin Valley. It long-term nature however, allowed it to become a unique site for also monitoring changes in soil properties and function under four experimental systems: conventional tillage with no cover crop, conventional tillage with cover crop, no-till with no cover crop, and no-till with cover crop. Crops rotated between tomato and cotton initially, but later during the study, the rotation was diversified to include melons, sorghum, and garbanzo beans.
The work involved the Soil Health Institute's Shannon Cappellazzi, who sampled at the site in 2019. That sampling event led to the site becoming part of a multiple-publication series of articles that reported on soil health impacts in 124 long-term study sites across North America.
https://soilhealthinstitute.org/news-events/a-minimum-suite-of-soil-health-indicators-for-north-american-agriculture/
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- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
Robert Willmott not only recently wrapped up his MS thesis research at Fresno State, but he also works full-time as the Farm Manager for his college's student ag farm, is married, and has two small children as well! A full plate, to say the least. In addition to all this, he recently told his story at Fresno State in a 3-minute video that is now posted at You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo6xZh5sGdA
Working in the Department of Plant Science in the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology under his award-winning and Fellow in the American Society of Agronomy major professor, Anil Shrestha, Robert presented his thesis work in an exit seminar on May 14th on campus ahead of being awarded this MS and graduating later this month. His work consisted of a multiple-year study to evaluate the potential of using a roller crimper and strip-tillage for producing silage corn under center pivot irrigation, a new systems approach for San Joaquin Valley dairies that rely on winter and corn silage for animal feed materials. The several years of the study saw quite good success in terminating a variety of winter cover crop mixes using the roller crimper, strong weed suppression during the early corn season, and corn yields comparable to industry standards and the conventional control system that was part of the evaluation.
The work is now being prepared for submission to a scientific journal later this summer. A three-minute You Tube video summarizing Robert's work may be viewed at the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo6xZh5sGdA
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