by Cynthia Kerson

The UC Master Gardeners of Napa County have started spring and summer home garden tours. It's a chance for members to tour each other's gardens, share ideas and visit with each other. I'm not sure if everyone else on the May 26^th garden tours were as dizzy as I was with all the Latin names being thrown around. I can barely remember common names, so to listen to the MG homeowners rattle them off as if they are family members was quite impressive. Both gardens we toured were beautifully developed and provided tons of beauty and food for our outside roommates, and were thoughtfully water-wise. They were filled with cuttings and gifts from other MGs over the years and each gardener remembered and told the story of each. One such flower (pictured) is a poppy, appropriately blooming for the Memorial Day weekend that the owner had received from a friend who had propagated seeds gathered from the plantings along a street in Napa.

One of our garden owners waters twice a week for 20 minutes from her well-designed drip system. She shared that one of her plants wasn't “performing” as well as she had hoped and bent down to apologize to it while patting it.

The second garden we toured has two water features that water the surrounding plants and provide drink and fun for some outside neighbors as well. She also has a functional drip water system and waters depending on the hydrozone, from twice a week for vegetable beds, to twice a year using a rain garden for native plants. It was interesting to note from the walkway to her home the influence she must have on her neighbors' gardens.

She has been experimenting with perennializing vegetables over the past couple of years by cutting them to the ground and seeing what they do. Pictured is a Swiss Chard and she reports that the leaves are still delicious, but she will have to get her garden saw out to cut it back this year as the stem has grown so large. 

The properties we toured are quite different from one another – one is sprawling in the Coombsville area among massive wineries and the other is in central Napa proper.  Both gardens speak the same language, though – support nature, be conscious about water, and develop and live in beauty.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photo credits: Cynthia Kerson

Information links:

UC IPM  Poppies ; UC ANR irrigation in the home garden ; UC ANR  perennial vegetables