Record numbers of people are gardening this spring and victory gardens are rapidly sprouting across the nation. Now is a better time than ever to learn how to save seeds.
Some vegetables, like beans and peas, are self-pollinating. These are less likely to cross with other related varieties through insect pollination. Self-pollinating varieties are excellent choices for the beginning seed saver, as some pods can simply be left on the vine to dry out. Once completely dried, remove seeds from pods, place them in envelopes labelled with the variety and date and store them in an airtight container in a dry dark place. A mason jar placed in the refrigerator or freezer makes a good receptacle for seed packets. Properly stored bean and pea seeds should remain viable for three years.
Peppers cross easily due to pollination. You may notice your sweet bell peppers suddenly take on a spicy hot pepper quality if you don't separate pepper varieties by at least 100 feet or plant barrier crops in between varieties. But pepper seeds are some of the easiest to save; just remove seeds from the fruit and dry them for two to three days on a plate or paper towel. Properly stored pepper seeds remain viable for up to two years.
Some vegetables require much more care to ensure that seeds do not carry mixed or unexpected character traits. While corn is an American staple in the garden and whole cobs are easily dried, wind pollination leads to easy crossing between different varieties. If you want to save corn seed, grow only one variety in a large patch (or in patches of different varieties separated by 1,000 feet, if you have that much space). Members of the squash family within the same species readily cross and must be separated by a half mile or hand-pollinated to ensure a pure strain. Similarly, cole crops are all varieties of a single species, Brassica oleracea. Cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, turnips, collard and bok choy will all cross with one another; therefore, growing only one variety at a time is recommended if you plan to save the seed.
For more information on saving seeds of all types, consult The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds by R. E. Gough and C. Moore-Gough, Seedsavers Exchange at www.seedsavers.org, your local seed lending library, or Beginner's Guide to Seed Saving” by Paul McCollum, UC Master Gardener of Monterey Bay.
You say you don't have a green thumb, or you don't have a yard for gardening? No problem! You can easily grow fresh, nutritious microgreens all year long in a sunny window in your home. All you need is soil, seeds, a container, and water.
Microgreens are larger than sprouts and smaller than baby lettuces. They can be grown from almost any vegetable or herb seed. You can find microgreen seed packets at most nurseries and online through seed catalogues. You can use single packets of seeds or make your own mix. When mixing a variety of seeds, make sure that the germination time for each type is about the same, so they can be harvested together. That information will be on the outside of the seed packet.
Experiment to find a flavor or combination of flavors that you enjoy. Try growing some spicy herbs and vegetables like radishes, mustards, arugula, or basil. Other good options for this method of growing are beets, broccoli, kale, peas, chard, cress, and sunflowers (sunflower sprouts have a nutty flavor and crunchy texture).
To grow microgreens indoors start with preparing a container. Re-purpose an old plastic lettuce container or a plastic ‘flat' that came from the garden center. Kits that include a container, a soil mix, and seed are available online. Whatever you use for a container, make sure it has drainage holes and a soil mix that drains well. If you are using a plastic ‘flat' cover the bottom with burlap or weed cloth. Choose a soil mix or seed starting mix that is labelled organic or free of chemicals. The microgreens will draw most of their nutrition from the soil and water. Their green leaves manufacture carbohydrates using sunlight and carbon dioxide from the air.
Fill the container with moistened soil mix to within one inch from the top. Sprinkle seeds generously over the entire area. Cover very lightly with soil and use a spray bottle to moisten the top. You want to moisten, but not drench, the soil. Place the container in a sunny window.
Growing microgreens is a simple way to add fresh, nutritious produce to your diet. They taste great and have a quick turn-around time. If you have children at home this is a fun project to do together. You can introduce the kids to the satisfaction of growing some of their own food and the fun of experimenting with their microgreens in everyday dishes.
- Author: Cheryl Cozad
In the wild areas on our planet, trees, bushes, and grasses grow on ground that has continual additions of new layers of dead and dying plant matter. Leaves fall from trees and shrubs, grasses dry in the summer: these materials cover the soil and gradually decompose. No Till gardening takes its cue from this natural process. There's no double-digging. No bi-annual rototilling. No weed pulling.
Soil is inhabited by billions of microscopic organisms. It is this abundant life, attracted to the sugars put out by plant roots, that creates a mutually beneficial feeding relationship with plants. Breaking up the soil by tilling, digging, or weeding disrupts these vital organisms.
No Till aids the soil's ability to retain water. The roots of previous weeds and other pre-existing plants create pathways for water to penetrate and be stored in the soil.
When you avoid tilling you'll have fewer weeds in your garden, since tilling brings weed seeds to the surface where light signals them to grow.
A No Till garden requires less work on the part of the gardener. Ultimately, a No Till bed will need less weeding, less watering, and less digging.
There is no need to wait before planting in a No Till garden – you just plant on top of the decomposing plant life.
There are several different approaches to creating a No Till garden. The simplest method is described here.
Materials you will need:
- Cardboard (with tape & labels removed) or newspapers (newsprint only – no colored ads or glossy pages).
- Compost, well-aged manure, worm compost, or organic soil mix. Organic blends are a little more expensive but they will do a better job of supporting the growth of your subterranean microbes, which help your plants get the nutrients they need for optimal growth and resistance to pests and diseases.
- Plants and seeds.
- Mulch (wood chips, straw, grass clippings, or pine needles).
- Select a sunny site. Think small. Two 5 x 10 - foot beds can grow a lot of produce. Even No Till gardening can get overwhelming if you take on too much.
- Cut existing vegetation to the ground and water the area well. Avoid burying large clumps or a thick layer of fresh green vegetation under a compost layer. Anaerobic decomposition can be detrimental to root growth.
- Apply a 4-to-6- inch layer of a well-composted mix. Well-aged horse manure (often available free from stables), plus worm compost makes a terrific mix. The City of Chico Compost Facility on Cohasset highway (currently closed due to COVID-19) sells finished compost that can be mixed with an organic soil mix or worm castings as another option.
- Cover the compost layer with overlapping pieces of cardboard, or 5 to 10 thicknesses of newspaper (overlapping them by one-third). Dousing the sheets of newspaper in a bucket of water will help stabilize them.
- For large deep-rooted plants (like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants) cut a circle in the cardboard or newspaper. Scoop out soil, add 2 to 3 shovelfuls of compost mix, and plant. For shallow-rooted vegetables or flowers, cut an X to open the cardboard or newspaper and plant smaller plants.
- Water well.
- Cover the bed with 4 to 6 inches of mulch. This will weigh down the cardboard or newspaper, prevent soil from drying out, and keep light from activating weed seeds. It also looks attractive.
- Install a drip or micro-sprinkler system or make a hand-watering schedule. Plan to water your No Till bed daily for the first week. Gradually taper off to every 3 to 5 days.
- Repeat! When a crop is finished, cut it to the ground, add compost, tuck in new plants, and mulch heavily.
Plants love the even moisture and lower soil temperatures created by No Till and mulch. Give it a try. Your microbes and your back will thank you.
For inspiration, browse the California State University, Chico Regenerative Agriculture website. For specific vegetable planting times, see our Planting Guides for the Chico Valley Area and for the Foothills.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Michelle Ramsey
Cutworms are moth larvae that hide in the soil during the day, and then come out at night to feed on plants. They get their name from their ability to "cut off" a seedling at ground level by chewing through the stem at or just below the soil level. 
Cutworms are grouped into 3 general categories:
1) Surface cutworms: do considerable damage to leaves and stems.
2) Climbing cutworms: climb onto plants and eat buds, leaves, and fruit.
3) Subterranean cutworms: stay on or below ground and feed on the roots of plants.
Management and Control. Plant collars can be used to protect tender transplants, because cutworms need to completely encircle a stem in order to munch it off. Make a collar out of cardboard, plastic, or aluminum foil. Paper cups (with bottoms removed) or tin cans (with both ends removed), also make good collars to place over young plants. Place a collar around each stem extending it one to two inches into the soil and two to three inches above the soil.
- Control weeds, grasses and plant debris both in and around the garden to reduce habitat and food favored by young cutworms.
- Keep up with cultivation. Moths prefer to lay eggs in high grass and weeds. At the end of the season, till your garden and mow surrounding areas to destroy their over-wintering habitat.
- A few weeks before planting your garden, dig the soil down about two inches, and squash any caterpillar larvae and/or pupae you find manually (or drop them into a bucket of soapy water).
- Once larvae emerge from pupae, hand-picking at night with a flashlight is very effective. Clip and dispose of infested foliage and blossoms.
- Pesticides are not very effective and can harm beneficial insects, so they are not recommended.
Additional information on cutworm damage on fruits and vegetables can be found here on the UC IPM website.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.
Gardeners looking for a drought-tolerant and highly disease-resistant native shrub might consider adding the blue elderberry (Sambucus cerulean also known as Sambucus Mexicana) to their landscape. 
This elderberry's habitat ranges from desert to temperate rainforest, thriving in both full shade and full sun. In good growing conditions in the wild it can reach up to 30 feet high. Its growing habit creates a wide bramble that puts on a spectacular show of flowers and berries in season, but becomes a bit ratty as the summer heat wears on.
The elderberry can be identified through its flowers in late spring, and bunches of blueish berries in mid to late-summer. Typically, hundreds of tiny flowers comprise what appears to be one light cream-colored flower in skyward-facing bunches. A waxy coating on the purple berries gives them their blueish finish. Another distinctive characteristic is that the elderberry is among the first shrubs to show green shoots, sometimes in late fall after the first rains and even well before the California buckeye, another early blooming native.
According to UC Cooperative Extension advisor Rachael Long, the elderberry is one of several natives that provide nectar and pollen for native bees, honey bees, and other insects. “I see a lot of green lace wings (predators of aphids, spider mites and other pests) in elderberry” she notes. The berries are edible for humans if properly prepared. They contain a mild toxin which can easily be cooked out.
The berries and other parts of the elderberry have been valued for their medicinal properties for thousands of years. Modern medical research has established a scientific basis for some medicinal uses that warrant further research. Early Europeans made food and medicine from the berries, and musical instruments from the hollow elderberry branches. In the western hemisphere, Native peoples were using many parts of the plant, well before each culture was aware of the others' existence.
Elderberry references make cultural appearances spanning space and time. In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus presented the gift of fire to man in a hollow elderberry branch. In our own time, it is the elder wand, fashioned in part from elderberry wood, which delivers a decisive blow for good over evil in the final chapter of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Blue elderberry grows extensively throughout Butte County, favoring streamside locations. For example, in Chico it can easily be found along Big and Little Chico Creeks and Lindo channel. In places along these waterways, there are nearly unbroken stretches of elderberry thickets. The elderberry's tenacity can be seen in the burn-scar area of Butte Creek canyon, where vigorous elderberry canes are re-emerging in profusion.
If you have space in your yard for a hardy native shrub that will provide food for beneficial insects and pollinators, consider the elderberry. It's best to enjoy this multi-use shrub in a section of your yard where it will not be disturbed, and where it can grow to its full size (30 feet) without needing to be trimmed or moved.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.
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