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Home Composting With Worms
by Pamela White
Have you ever seen those full black garbage cans tipped into trucks in your neighborhood? They haul our food waste to the landfill along with other discards we have tossed aside. They smell, they emit greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, and we pay extra for this service. But is this the best plan for our planet? We know that the answer is “no.”
How can you contribute to replenishing and leaving our planet a better place? Composting is one answer.
You may say you don't have the space, time, or energy to turn those compost piles. You may even say, “They stink!” Have you thought about vermicomposting? In a vermicompost system, worms do the work of recycling organic food waste by consuming your degraded food waste and turning it into valuable worm-casting fertilizer.
Handful of composting worms, by Pam White
Let's think about vermicomposting and its advantages. Worms work quietly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are happy to eat your rotting food waste. You only need to feed them once a week or less. They live inside a bin furnished with damp and dry bedding. No reason to buy bedding, shred some newspaper, non-glossy office paper, brown bags, or even your toilet paper rolls. Wait a minute, that's recycling too! The bin may be kept under your office desk, inside your home, garage, shed, or outdoors in a sheltered spot, as long as it doesn't get too hot or cold. You see, worms are like Goldilocks, they like the temperature just right… 55–75ºF is perfect.
Worm bins don't even smell! What else is on the worms' desirable housing list? They like damp bedding, so get a spray bottle filled with water to moisten the shred. They breathe through their skin which needs to be moist. Oh yes, they don't have any teeth. Instead, they have a gizzard, just like birds. Save your coffee grounds and tea grounds for grit. Even your washed, dried, and pulverized egg shells provide grit for the worms. More ways to recycle from your kitchen to a worm bin.
What happens to all that damp and dry shred, rotting food waste, and grit? After a few weeks, you'll see castings (fancy name for worm poop) and leachate (fancy name for liquid collected from decaying food) in the bin. What do you do with that? Worm castings are considered “black gold”, the best slow release fertilizer you can use for starting seedlings, fertilizing house plants, and top dressing plants in your garden. Then there is the leachate. You can make a 50/50 solution of leachate and water for your plants. Vermicomposting helps the earth and can save you money.
Want to learn more about vermicomposting? Want your children to learn about composting with worms? Thinking of a family project? Need to earn a badge for scouting? Thinking about how to meet the environmental education standards for your grade level? Master Composters and Master Gardeners at San Jose's Martial Cottle Park provide workshops for school and community groups. In a two-hour workshop, you can learn about the vermicomposting process, the worm composting cycle, the worm life cycle, and the anatomy of worms. Join us for some fun worm exploration, and even build a small bin to take home and start your own system.
If you're interested, take a look at our Mornings at Martial Cottle Park webpage to learn how to schedule. We have provided workshops for kindergarten through college-aged students. School groups, camps, scouts, college students, and master gardener trainees have participated in our workshops. Our workshops are designed to meet the needs of the community, including those with special needs.
Our teaching team uses a multi-modality approach to learning. We engage our audience with singing, movement, and interactive demonstrations so that we can explore, create, and learn together. Master composters provide free workshops to each city in Santa Clara County. You can see the workshop schedule and register online. You can also request Master Composters for tabling at community events, presentations, and classroom activities. You may request either a compost workshop (for outdoor composting) or a vermicomposting workshop (for composting with worms). The Santa Clara County Composting Education website has more information, including a request form for for community events and kids' composting activities.
Simply Beautiful Lavender
by Karen Seroff
English Lavender, Karen Seroff
If your garden does not already feature a lavender plant or two, it may be time to consider adding this multi-tasking beauty to your landscape. There are many benefits to growing lavender in your garden, a large variety of species to choose from, and Santa Clara County's Mediterranean climate is a perfect environment for growing these beautiful plants. This article offers a few tips for successfully growing these beautiful plants.
Lavender (Lavendula) is in the mint family (Labiatae) and is traditionally grown as an ornamental plant for culinary purposes and as a producer of essential oils. The name “lavender” is derived from the Latin term “lavare,” which means “to bathe,” and its scent has been associated with cleansing for centuries. Lavenders are woody perennials that prefer full sun and well-drained soil and grow from 1–3' high and 2–4' wide. Advantages of growing lavender include its drought, fire, and deer resistance, low nutrient needs, erosion control, long bloom time, low maintenance, beautiful appearance, and fragrance. Some of the many uses for lavender include use in herbal teas and cooking, fragrances, crafts, sachets, oils and aromatherapy. The scent of lavender is also highly regarded for reducing stress and improving sleep.
French lavender, Karen Seroff
Although most people envision the classic English lavender, there are many more species that should be explored. There are three groups of lavender in the genus Lavandula: Spica, Stoechas, and Pterostoechas. Most commercial lavender species are in the Spica group or the Lavandin group (interspecies hybrids). Traditional English lavenders can be listed by any of these names: L. augustifolia, L. latifolia, L. officinalis and L. spica.
Lavandins are cultivated for commercial oil and garden plantings and include Grosso, Standard, Super, and Abrialii for oil, and Grappenhall, Goodwin Creek, Gray, Provence, and Silver Grey for ornamental plants. English lavender cultivars include dwarf, pink-flowered, blue-flowered, and purple-flowered choices. Spanish lavenders (Lavandula stoechas) and their cultivars tend to bloom first in spring. Although not used for oil production, they are wonderful additions to the garden. These showy plants feature small, pineapple-shaped tufts with bracts at the blossom tops that can be purple, blue or white. In addition to being the most drought-tolerant of the lavenders, they often have a second or third bloom period as summer progresses. Some popular Spanish lavenders include L. stoechas ‘Alba', L. pinnata, L. viridis, L. linata boiss, and L. heterophylla. French lavenders are also primarily used as ornamental plants and include the popular species L. dentata.
Spanish lavender, Allen Buchinski
Most lavenders are propagated through cuttings or division. Although there are a few exceptions, most lavenders take up to six months to grow from seed to transplanting into the garden. Seeded varieties also tend to have less flower production and to be short-lived. Propagation cuttings are best taken in early spring or late summer. Use a rooting compound, place in coarse sand or vermiculite, and keep them moist for 4–6 weeks. Once cuttings are rooted and hardened off, they can be planted in the garden. Space plantings based on the size of the plant and its use. Most plants are productive for 6–8 years, although some can produce flowers much longer. It is important that the soil be well-drained and have a pH of 6.5–7.5 for successful growth. Drip irrigation is best to avoid diseases such as crown or root rot and flower damage. Full sun and lower nitrogen levels promote the highest levels of oil in lavender plants. Pruning is done when harvesting the lavender crop or just after flowering. Few pests bother lavender plants, but they can be frequented by spittlebugs.
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Gardening for Awe and Wonder
by Jeff Jenks
Recent books have explored the connections between grief, human biology, brain chemistry, psychology, and emotions and how they are affected by nature, gardening, and horticulture. One such publication from 2023 is “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” by Dr. Dacher Keltner. In Chapter Six, titled WILD AWE, How Nature Becomes Spiritual, and Heals Bodies and Minds, Dr. Keltner suggests that tending a home garden allows one to witness the remarkable miracles of nature unfolding before their eyes. Planting a tiny seed and observing its growth into a plant with flowers or vegetables is truly awe-inspiring. However, behind this magic lies a realm of fascinating science that often goes unnoticed.
The image at right, by Hillie Salo, depicts the germination of a seed from soil covered with mulch. The first leaves that emerge from a germinating seed are called cotyledons, often referred to as seed leaves. Cotyledons provide essential nutrients to the developing seedling until it can produce its true leaves and begin photosynthesizing on its own. Understanding this plant biology is part of the curriculum for the Initial Training in Botany that is required for you to become a Master Gardener in Santa Clara County. If you have a passion for gardening, an interest in science-based horticulture, and would enjoy sharing your knowledge with the public, this opportunity may be for you! UC Master Gardeners are trained to give talks and classes, staff a help desk, work in demonstration gardens, answer questions at events, and much more. Learn about the application process on our website. If accepted into the UC Master Gardener Program, you will be enrolled in a January–May 2025 training class. Act now!
All the phenomena we observe in nature result from complex processes and chemistry. Another significant book, published in 2020, is “The Well-Gardened Mind, The Restorative Power of Nature” by Sue Stuart-Smith. In Chapter 7, titled Flower Power, she writes, “Much like bees, we get a buzz from flowers. Flowers speak to our unconscious in a way that is hard to entirely fathom.” The bright colors of flower petals? They result from tiny pigment molecules absorbing and reflecting different colors of light. The sweet nectar that attracts bees and butterflies? It's a special mix of sugars that provides plants and their animal partners with energy. Everywhere you look in the garden, science is at work, bringing about wonderful things. As Master Gardeners, we aim to help elucidate that science for home gardeners. This article includes photos taken by Master Gardeners that inspired AWE for them. For example, the Christmas cactus flower on the left, by David Giroux.
In yards all around Santa Clara County, examples of hidden science revealed through nature's wonders can be found. The blossoms on a fruit tree bursting open showcase the elaborate process of flower development driven by hormones and gene expression. Roses utilize pigments like anthocyanins to create their bright colors and protect themselves from factors such as heat and UV rays. Yellow rose photo by David Giroux; the first bloom in 2024.
Camellias contain pigments such as flavonoids, carotenoids, and chlorophyll that contribute to the white, pink, and yellow colors of camellia flower shown below. Carotenoids, such as xanthophylls and carotenes, produce yellow, orange, and red colors. Chlorophyll, responsible for green coloration, is also present in camellia leaves but not in significant amounts in the flowers. These pigments serve multiple purposes, including attracting pollinators, protecting the plant from excess light and UV radiation, and sometimes aiding in temperature regulation. Photo by David Giroux, a camellia.
Here are a few descriptions in words where you might experience AWE: The smell of orange blossoms attracts so many honey bees that the orange tree itself starts humming. After the scent has dissipated, “June drop” is a natural phenomenon that occurs in citrus trees during early summer when immature, underdeveloped fruits drop from the tree. This process allows the tree to shed excess fruits it cannot fully support, redirecting its resources to the remaining fruits for better size and quality. The June drop is regulated by plant hormones and helps regulate the overall yield, preventing over-production while ensuring the remaining fruits receive sufficient nutrients to reach optimum maturity, size, and flavor. Master Gardeners teach classes on growing citrus. Check our event calendar for upcoming classes. Image: navel orange tree in bloom with unpicked fruit, by Jeff Jenks.
The sight of a brilliant orange-red monarch butterfly on any type of milkweed inspires awe. Milkweed plants are the sole food source for monarch caterpillars. The caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed, ingesting toxic compounds called cardenolides, which make the caterpillars and adult butterflies unpalatable to predators. Monarch butterflies and milkweed plants have a symbiotic relationship. The monarchs rely on milkweed for food and to acquire their toxicity, while the milkweed benefits from having its seeds dispersed by the butterflies as they lay eggs on the plants.
Photos: on the left is black, white, and yellow striped monarch caterpillar, by Kathy Keatly Garvey. On the right, an orange and black monarch butterfly feeds on a yellow zinnias flower, by R. Schoenenberger.
Master Gardeners create and give presentations like All About Monarch Butterflies and How to Garden for Monarch Habitat. Monarch butterflies are beneficial pollinator insects. Other insects like termites are NOT. UC Master Gardeners offer a Plant Clinic Online where you can provide a photo of the damaged leaves, and a Master Gardener can help diagnose whether it's insect damage or a plant disease. We also provide education and training in Integrated Pest Management as another way of supporting the mission of the UC Master Gardeners.
Ants herd aphids much like humans herd cattle. From the ants' perspective, this relationship serves a simple purpose: acquiring food. In this “trophobiosis” (from Ancient Greek troph?, meaning ‘nourishment'), the aphids are the “trophobionts”, providing the equivalent of milk and meat to the ants. To an observant gardener, common sights like these unveil the unseen biological processes behind the scenes. Master Gardeners enjoy teaching about the science that makes these natural marvels possible. Image: ant “farming” aphids, böhringer friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Taking a walk in an old growth redwood forest can inspire AWE when you look up and realize the age of the tree is probably older than you. Master Gardeners take Continuing Education classes to keep abreast of trees and their diseases throughout their time as volunteers. Redwood photo by Brian Jones, Brian Jones Photography, used with permission.
Sadly, invasive shothole borers have arrived in Santa Clara County after causing the death of thousands of trees in Southern California. The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County are getting educated on what we can do about this horrific tree pest.
It‘s truly awesome to hear the sound and capture an image of a large bumblebee pollinating the flower of a blueberry plant. Master Gardeners offer public classes to help local gardeners cultivate blueberries in containers or in the soil.
For more information about growing blueberries in Santa Clara County, refer to the handout Growing Blueberries in Santa Clara County. Or watch Blueberries in Abundance on our YouTube channel.
The image on the right is Bombus terrestris bumblebee pollinating a Southern Highbush type of blueberry plant.
Master Gardeners teach classes on creating pollinator gardens and have example gardens, including Pollinator Hill and Pollinator Pathway Garden, at our Martial Cottle Park Teaching Garden. Experiencing Nature can include watching a hummingbird drink the nectar of flowers while pollinating the flower. Hummingbird photo on left by Hank Morales.
The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County publish a blog titled Thyme to Garden, which explores various gardening topics that highlight the awe-inspiring aspects of nature. You are reading this Blog as you read this post. Experiencing AWE takes some effort. You need to consciously seek it while you are gardening, taking a walk, or planting new flowers in the spring. The effort may restore your life. So go out and do some gardening.
The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County offer Advice to Grow By… Ask Us!
References:
- AWE: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, by Dacher Keltner, 2023
- The Well-Gardened Mind, The Restorative Power of Nature, by Sue Stuart-Smith, 2020
- The Many Mental Health Benefits of Gardening, PennState Extension Master Gardeners, January 22, 2024
- Gardening can relieve human stress and boost nature connection during the COVID-19 pandemic, by Monika Egerer, Brenda Lin, Jonathan Kingsley, Pauline Marsh, Lucy Diekmann, and Alessandro Ossolag, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 68, February 2022
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