A new season of Master Gardener Workshops is about to start! The series begins February 3 with a timely session on starting summer vegetable plants from seed and concludes at the end of May with an exploration of weeds – how to identify common weeds, and what their presence can indicate about the health of your soil. In all, this Spring Series totals 20 workshops, including five all-new topics. There is something here for every type of gardener and every size of home garden, whether you maintain a balcony of plants in containers or produce fruit and vegetables on a large plot for your family, friends, and neighbors. For full descriptions of all the workshops and to register, visit our website.
The many fascinating ways in which California native plants have adapted in order to succeed despite our hot, dry summers is the focus of a new workshop. And if harvesting plants in their natural habitat for medicinal use interests you, Jules Pecson of Fiona's Forest will be returning to teach a workshop on the practice of wildcrafting.
When you are adding more native plants to your own garden why not make choices that also help attract and support birds? We've got a new workshop on creating a bird-friendly garden that also appeals to humans. And don't forget about the bees! Our workshop on native bees will help you understand their plant and habitat needs and provide you with the information you need to support these valuable pollinators.
We've got workshops on caring for roses and cultivating succulents. If you are interested in adding food plants to the ornamentals in your garden, our workshop on edible landscaping is for you. Adding some fruit trees is one way to incorporate edibles into your garden, and our popular workshop on fruit tree care is being offered twice.
Of course, gardening does not come without its challenges, which often arrive in the form of noxious weeds. But the appearance of weeds can also provide valuable information about the health of your soil, a topic covered in our workshop on weed identification. As gardeners we also grapple with challenges presented by all kinds of pests; our workshop on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is designed to help you address pest problems safely.
Finally, no gardener gets younger as time marches on. Our “Gardening for a Lifetime” workshop offers plenty of practical advice to help transform increasingly difficult chores into sustainable activities, so we can continue to be active in the garden as we age.
Most of the workshops will be held in the outdoor classroom located in the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden or inside Pat's Barn; both are located at the Patrick Ranch (10381 Midway, between Chico and Durham). Other locations include the Terry Ashe Recreation Center on Skyway; the Paradise Veterans Hall; and the OLLI classroom at The Social residence halls in Chico. The Fruit Tree Care workshops will be held at a private residence, and the Edible Landscaping workshop will be presented via Zoom. While most of the workshops take place during morning or early afternoon hours, the workshops on soil health and edible landscaping are offered later in the afternoon.
The following is a list of workshop topics and dates. All workshops are free, but they do require advance registration. For full descriptions of all the workshops and to register, visit our website.
FEBRUARY
Seed Starting (Saturday 2/3). Learn to start your own plants from seed. The focus here is on tomatoes and peppers. Many options for seed starting indoors will be covered, including proper lighting and temperature control.
Gardening for a Lifetime (Wednesday 2/7). Practical advice about plants, labor-saving techniques, tools, and exercises to help us continue to garden successfully as we (inevitably) age.
Wildcrafting (Monday 2/12). Learn from experienced herbalist Jules Pecson of Fiona's Forest as she discusses the practice of harvesting plants in their natural habitats and their uses in medicinal remedies, tinctures, and salves.
Rose Care and Propagation (Tuesday 2/20). Keep your roses healthy throughout the year! From preparing the soil through planting, fertilizing, watering, pruning, and pest management, Butte Rose Society Consulting Rosarian Gwen Quail will share a wealth of guidelines, tips, and how-to's for happy roses.
Gardening in the Foothills (3/11). The focus here is on the rewards and challenges faced by those who garden in our foothill areas. Topics include soil structure, biochar and soil building; water-wise gardening; pest management; planting systems for different landscape types; solar impact; and plant selection.
Edible Landscaping (Monday 3/18). You can have a productive AND beautiful edible landscape by incorporating fruit and nut trees, vegetables, and herbs into the garden. This workshop focuses on the use of food plants as design features that contribute aesthetic value as well as tasty food to the garden.
“Black Gold” – Vermiculture (Wednesday 3/20). This workshop will teach you how to create rich, nutritious compost with help from worms. A Certified Composter will show you how to get started and how to keep the worms happy so they continue to create valuable Black Gold for your plants.
Propagation (Saturday 3/23). Come to learn when and how to propagate woody perennials and divide plants; leave this workshop with plant cuttings from our Demonstration Garden to start at home.
Fruit Tree Care (Wednesday 3/27). What are the best practices for cultivating fruit trees? Orchardist Tom Hansen covers pruning, irrigation, fertilizers, and cultural practices in this information-packed workshop (also offered on 4/13).
Soil Health (Monday 4/1). The three most important things you can do in your garden for healthier plants, more nutritious food, and a waterwise landscape are the focus of this workshop. Specifically: no till; no bare soil; and no herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers. Learn how soil health, plant health, and people's health are all connected.
Native Gardens for the Birds (Friday 4/12). Make your garden a habitat that supports birds throughout the year. Learn which bird species you can expect to attract; the plants they like; and how to arrange different types and sizes of plants in order to provide food, shelter, protection, and nesting sites.
Fruit Tree Care (Saturday 4/13). What are the best practices for cultivating fruit trees? Orchardist Tom Hansen covers pruning, irrigation, fertilizers, and cultural practices in this information-packed workshop (also offered on 3/27).
Irrigation (Wednesday 4/17). Drip irrigation is arguably the most efficient method of providing water to trees, crops, gardens, and landscapes. This workshop provides an overview of different options available for drip irrigation systems and covers how to install, inspect, troubleshoot, and repair them.
Succulents (Friday 4/19). Succulents do well in our climate because their thick, fleshy leaves retain water during long dry summers, and their striking appearance makes them great choices for ornamental gardens. This workshop covers heat and water requirements; which types do well in containers and which ones are happy when planted in the ground; and includes a tour of our new Succulent Garden.
Composting (Friday 4/26). Learn to make wonderful soil-enriching compost from leaves, garden waste, and kitchen scraps. This workshop covers the different ways to create compost, using techniques that range from simple to complex. Knowing the choices can help you choose the style that best fits your own resources and needs.
Firewise Gardening (Thursday 5/2). This presentation covers fire behavior, State guidelines for defensible space, and how to create and maintain defensible space around your home. Examples of firewise plants, as well as of plants that should be avoided in a firewise landscape, will be included.
Bee Basics: An Introduction to Our Native Bees (Wednesday 5/8). Did you know that 1600 species of native bees can be found in California? This workshop focuses on a few of them: bumblebees, leaf cutting bees, mason bees, and carpenter bees. Understanding the bees' lifespans and their plant and habitat needs will help you support these valuable pollinators.
Pest Management (Friday 5/17). In this interactive class learn the basics of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) so you can solve your pest problems while minimizing risks to people and the environment.
Weed Identification (Monday 5/20). Using our Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch as a lab, a team of Master Gardeners will show you how to identify common weeds and explain what their presence might reveal about the health of the soil. Armed with this knowledge, you can manage your own soil more efficiently. Using mulch to control weeds will also be discussed.
How Does Your Garden Grow? Adaptations of California Native Plants (Wednesday 5/22). Plants are adapted to the specific conditions of their native environments. In this workshop our own Wildflower Maven, Cindy Weiner, discusses the variety of adaptations which allow California natives to succeed in Butte County despite our hot and dry summers.
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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
“You should learn to plant something. This is the first connection.” Floyd Red Crow Westerman
Which is our future. Because “seed is of course where most of our food, or the food of our food, originates” (p 181). Without access to healthy, diverse, viable seed stock, terrestrial life would perish. One thread that runs through this book details the many ways in which seed is under threat, while it also celebrates the individuals and groups working to keep the world's seed stores safe from monopoly, genetic modification with pesticides and herbicides, and extinction.
To answer the obvious follow-up question of why a “notorious petrochemical company and then a pharmaceutical company [would] be interested in seed at all?” Jewell explains that it is “…because seed is very, very big financial business – especially when tied to the petrochemical fortunes of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and patented commodity seed that has to be purchased new every year” (p 101).
Jewell points out that against this push by corporate interests to control seed and manipulate its genetics stand a large number of non-profits the world over which breed, save, and distribute a wide variety of heirloom seeds, as well as ancient indigenous seeds which carry the history and culture of the first peoples in their DNA. In the face of a changing climate and reduced natural habitat, our survival is dependent on biodiversity. After all, as environmental activist Vandana Shiva has noted, “Cultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative.”
Woven into the academic research material and information gained from interviewing those who work with seeds and plants are profoundly personal reflections about the place and time that Jewell inhabits. Discussions of her current and past life experiences augment and illustrate the themes the book encompasses. She has structured this book in a way that allows her to zoom in and explore the ecosystem in which she lives, but also to place that ecosystem into a global context. For this reader, that structure is where the real power and beauty of Jewell's book lies.
Divided over a period of 13 months (starting in October and ending the following October), each chapter is part monthly journal, part “quasi-memoir,” and part seed textbook. This allows Jewell to illustrate the crucial nature of biodiversity at the scale of our local ecosystem while emphasizing how that biodiversity is important to the sustainability of seed, and thus life, at a world-wide scale.
Essentially, the strength of the whole can be found in the part – global bio-sustainability rests on local biodiversity. “In fact, biodiversity swarms in little windblown eddies of time and space on the leeward side of anything with mass: sage, mountain mahogany, rocks, sticks, the dry mineral slopes themselves” (p 216). Which is an awfully strong reason for the conservation of wild places, and an argument for maintaining connections between plant and animal wildlife corridors. This is where we all can make a difference: Jewell urges you to replace your lawn with habitat for insects and animals, therefore contributing to the wild diversity found in nature.
There are many fascinating and significant threads to follow in Jewell's book, including the theme of how closely the lives of plants, and their seeds, are entwined with those of animals (including humans). If you are tempted to believe that we are somehow separate from the seeds that sustain us, and from the ecological systems that sustain seeds, Jewell's homage to seeds will help you value your place in this world. As John Muir noted well over one hundred years ago, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
[Note: Buckeye (Aesculus californica), gray pine (Pinus sabiniana), and blue oak (Quercus douglasii) are tree species that thrive in rugged local foothill woodland and chaparral habitat. In the last two editions, we covered the blue oak and the gray pine. This final installment explores the buckeye. All three species rely on adaptive strategies evolved over time allowing them to thrive in their challenging environment.]
Aesculus californica is a woody shrub or small tree that has adapted to a variety of microclimates in our state: it can be found along the central coast and in the foothill and lower montane elevations of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges. It grows as far north as the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains, and as far south as northern Los Angeles County. Native buckeyes can grow in elevations as high as 4,000 feet (one source claims 5,500 feet), but most commonly these plants colonize the foothill altitudes. A true California native, it is found nowhere else in the world.
Buckeyes are a beautiful and striking presence on the landscape. In fact, this native is so lovely that it is used as an ornamental plant for its attractive lime green palmately compound leaves[JHC1] (shaped like the palm of the hand) composed of between 5 and 7 individual leaflets, fragrant white flowers, and handsome, thick-stemmed, smooth silver bark. Its stands out visually from its fellow foothill species precisely because of its evolutionary adaptations: it is the first to leaf out in the spring; the last to bloom; and the first to lose all its leaves. In particularly hot, dry years, the leaves can drop prior to the blooms, making the large, showy flowers (up to 12 inches long) even more conspicuous. When leafless, the skeletal structure of mature buckeyes appears to be sculpted and arranged by the hand of an artist.
The seeds of Aesculus californica are contained in a thick leathery husk, which splits when dried, and are the largest of any non-tropical plant species. These seeds (also called nuts) are the origin of both of its common names: buckeye and horse chestnut. According to Cal Poly's Select Tree web page, Native Americans called the seed "hetuck" (buck eye) because its markings resemble the eye of a deer. The seeds also resemble those of the European sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa). And there the resemblance ends, as the heavy seeds of the California buckeye are toxic, thus limiting its reproductive dispersal strategies to rolling downhill or being conveyed by water.
Surviving Drought and Fire: Buckeyes employ two of the most successful adaptations to Mediterranean climates: drought avoidance and a long taproot. These trees begin their annual growth cycle in the late winter and early spring rainy season, and enter dormancy in summer. By shedding their leaves early, they avoid loss of water from transpiration through the leaves. This adaptation to our long, hot, dry summers gives the plant a nice long rest period before the rains begin.
Native American Uses: Native groups did find the buckeye nut to be of some use as a food supply despite its toxicity, primarily when acorn harvests were sparse. They rendered the buckeye seed palatable by boiling and leaching the toxin out of the nut meats for several days, after which the nuts could be ground into meal similar to that made from acorns.
The same toxin that limited the buckeye seed to a food source only in times of hunger was used to snare a more delicious high protein food source. Native California tribes, including the Pomo, Yokut, and Luiseño, cleverly used the ground-up powder of buckeye seeds to stupefy schools of fish in small streams, making them easier to catch. And the smooth, straight branches of the buckeye made it useful to native peoples as a bow drill and a fire drill.
Our native buckeye is a California beauty and a hardy survivor in some of the least hospitable habitats. In the biological contest for survival, this tough, gorgeous plant holds a winning hand.
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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
[Note: Gray pine (Pinus sabiniana), buckeye (Aesculus californica), and blue oak (Quercus douglasii) are tree species that thrive in rugged local foothill woodland and chaparral habitat. Last edition, we covered the blue oak, and today the gray pine is featured. The final installment will explore the buckeye. All three species rely on adaptive strategies evolved over time allowing them to thrive in their challenging environment.]
But underneath that homely exterior lies a true gem. This tree's many common names testify to its importance: gray pine, California foothill pine, foothill pine, nut pine, bull pine, and ghost pine. Its pejorative historic name, digger pine, is no longer in use. The Maidu named it “towáni” and the Yana called it “c'ala'I.” Its scientific name derives from the English lawyer, naturalist, and writer on horticulture Joseph Sabine (1770 to 1837). Sabine had a lifelong interest in natural history and was an original fellow of the Linnean Society. It was Sabine who was responsible for sending David Douglas on specimen collecting trips, specifically to supply plants to the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens.
We are not certain of the lifespan of the gray pine, because older specimens were cut down by early settlers, but it is believed that these trees can live for over 200 years. When mature, they average from 40 to 80 feet tall. About 15 to 25 feet off the ground, gray pines develop two or more twisted stems that can grow at irregular angles to one another, resulting in a crown that appears open and ragged. Gray pine is self-pruning, and the remaining lowest branches will end up high above the understory. Where soils allow, gray pines can develop a deep taproot, but in hardpan soils their roots are spreading and shallow, and the bark thickens as the tree ages.
The female cones are the largest and heaviest in the entire pine family. They could be mistaken for a football lying amongst shed needles, as they can be up to one foot long, and when dry are dull orange/brown. A green cone can weigh over two pounds. That, and their sharp spines, warn one to be alert while treading under this tree!
Surviving Drought and Fire
In an evolutionary adaptation to the dry hot summers of a Mediterranean climate, the gray pine has thin, gray needles up to 12 inches long that help it deflect heat and retain water. Surprisingly, this species is not fire resistant. On the contrary, it is highly flammable: its needles contain ether extracts; its wood, bark, cones, and needle sheaths all contain pitch; and its trunk often is coated with resin that has dripped from wounds. Its fire survival strategy lies in two specific adaptations. First, large trees will better survive moderate-severity fires because the thickened bark of mature trees and the self-pruned trunks with high branching limbs are best able to avoid fatal scorching. Second, seed regeneration is actually favored post-fire. As noted by the USDA, fire creates a receptive “bare mineral soil seedbed, and heat scarification of the woody seed coat increases germination rates.”
Native American Uses
For California's native peoples, the gray pine was (and still is) a nutritional jackpot! Pine nuts are densely caloric, loaded with protein, easy to harvest, and store well for long periods. While many of California's pines provided food to native populations, the nuts of the gray pine were the most highly valued. They could be eaten raw, parched in baskets, and steamed in earth ovens. They were pounded into flour that was made into butter, soup, or bread; mixed with meal made from other dried seeds; and combined with dried salmon. In spring, green cones were roasted to yield a syrupy treat.
Crooked, ragged, and awkward as the gray pine may appear, its ability to thrive under environmental hardship, and its value to native peoples' survival make it an ecological and cultural champion. After all, handsome is as handsome does.
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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
[Note: Blue oak (Quercus douglasii), gray pine (Pinus sabiniana), and buckeye (Aesculus californica) are three species that thrive in rugged local foothill woodland and chaparral habitat. Today and in the following weeks, this series will look at these species and the adaptive strategies they have evolved over time to thrive in their challenging environment.]
Darwin, the product of a strictly codified class society beset by enormous economic inequalities, identified a major factor of evolution to be competition for finite resources. Those species that clambered to the top of the evolutionary heap benefitted from genetic mutations and / or adaptations that gave them a biological edge over their competitors.
Some species cooperate by sharing resources. For example, in Tortuguero, a tiny strip of beach along the northeastern shoulder of Costa Rica, four separate species of sea turtle lay their eggs each year. They migrate to the beach at different times, ranging from early March to October, and feed on different resources. Millions of turtles, and untold numbers of their babies, have shared the same tiny piece of real estate for eons.
Quercus douglasii also goes by a number of other common names, including white oak, mountain oak, mountain white oak, and iron oak. But it acquired its most familiar and descriptive common name from the same person from whom its Latin binomial (scientific name) is derived. In 1831 David Douglas, a Scottish botanist, christened it the blue oak for the bluish cast of its deeply lobed leaves. (A digression: Douglas, for whom the Douglas-fir and hundreds of other western plants are named, lived from 1799 to 1834. He made three trips to the American Northwest between 1823 and 1831, encountering the blue oak on his last trip while traveling from the Columbia River in Oregon to San Francisco. He died under curious circumstances, apparently after falling into a bull trap while climbing Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.)
Surviving Drought and Fire:
Adaptations to survive the long, hot, dry summers and sparse winter rains of our Mediterranean climate include thick leaves with a bluish-green color. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), blue-gray-green leaf color reduces heat absorption. During severely hot and dry years, blue oaks will sometimes shed their leaves and go dormant to conserve energy, allowing these tough little oaks to survive temperatures above 100° F for several weeks at a time. Like many plants growing in marginal soils, blue oaks are slow growers, usually increasing only a few inches each year.
A further strategy to survive drought and fire conditions is the blue oak's extensive root system, which allows it to grow through cracks in rocks to depths of 80 feet in order to reach ground water, helping it to survive in fire-prone and arid regions (Blue Planet Biomes).
Although blue oaks can tolerate fast-burning grass fires, they have less success in surviving hotter brush fires, according to University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR). If a tree does survive a fire event, it can reproduce both through seeds and by sprouting from burnt stumps. Blue oaks can produce sprouts after a low- to moderate-severity surface fire, and younger trees have the edge on older trees for fire survival odds. On younger trees, the light-colored bark (hence “white oak”) is thick and helps reduce fire damage, the USDA notes, whereas the bark of mature blue oaks is thin and will flake off as the trees age, making older blue oaks less insulated against fire. After a fire, blue oaks can also re-establish from acorns that have dropped from surviving parent trees and/or been dispersed by animals, among other possibilities.
Native American Uses:
All parts of the blue oak were woven deeply into the culture and survival of California's native peoples. It was one of more than a dozen oak species whose acorns contributed a major source of dietary nutrients and calories. Because of their superior flavor, blue oak acorns were among the most commonly gathered.
A Plant Guide published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides an exhaustive list of the ways California Native Americans used blue oak wood, bark, and acorns, including as “medicine, dyes, utensils, games, toys, and construction materials.” Locally, the Maidu used oak shoots to frame cradleboards and oak posts to construct shelter, and the Yana used an oak paddle in cooking. Traps for birds were baited with acorns, and split acorns became dice for gambling.
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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.