Are you interested in becoming a Master Gardener? The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County will begin training a new class in mid-January 2024. Graduates of the 17-week course will join the current roster of 100 volunteers involved in a multitude of local gardening projects. If you want to learn more about the Master Gardener (MG) program, please consider attending one of the upcoming informational meetings being held from July through early September (three at locations in Chico and one in Oroville). A full list of these meetings can be found on our Join Us webpage.
The first half of 1862 was a busy year for Lincoln and the US Congress. Our country was a year into a brutal civil war when two bills were signed that would shape our nation in ways that are still pertinent 160 years later. The first of these congressional actions was the Homestead Act of 1862, signed into law by Lincoln in April of 1862. Hot on its heels was the lesser-known Morrill Act (also known as the Land-Grant College Act), which was passed into law just before 1862's Independence Day celebrations, such as they were at that fractured time in our history.
Sponsored by Vermont Senator Justin Morrill, the Land-Grant College Act called for the donation of public lands “to the several States and [Territories] which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the Mechanic arts…” Through this Act the Federal Government was committed to grant each state 30,000 acres of public land, which became the basis of our national system of Land-Grant state colleges and universities. It is important to acknowledge that lands nationwide had been occupied by Native Americans for tens of thousands of years. In keeping with the dominant world view of that time, the land appropriated by the federal government was considered “public” and could be given to each of the states for beneficial use.
In California, the University of California at Berkeley was established as the Land-Grant College. Today, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, and closest to home, UC Davis carry on that legacy by housing the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Cooperative Extension specialists and Experiment Station Faculty are based on these three campuses and coordinate their education efforts with UC-funded Cooperative Extension Advisors. Fifty of California's 58 counties support a UC Cooperative Extension department.
Over time, as the reputation of the County Extension programs and California's population grew, busy Farm Advisors increasingly found themselves fielding questions about plants, pests, and problems from home gardeners. The Master Gardener (MG) Program was developed to help the Farm Advisors extend information by training volunteers in the science of gardening and horticulture. This program was conceived by Dr. David Gibby of the University of Washington Cooperative Extension. Gibby ran a pilot program in Tacoma, Washington in 1972. Following its resounding success, the Master Gardeners were officially established, along with a rigorous training program and curriculum. The concept quickly spread throughout the US and Canada. Each MG program in the US is affiliated with a land-grant university and a county UC Cooperative Extension office.
In California, Riverside and Sacramento Counties were the first to launch programs in training and certifying Master Gardeners, beginning in 1980. Since then, certified Master Gardener programs have been founded in more than 50 California counties.
In 2007, Butte County UCCE Farm Advisor Joseph Connell and Family and Consumer Science Advisor and County Director Susan Donohue identified a real need for a local MG Program. Working with UC Davis, the county, the UCCE office in Oroville, the Butte County Farm, Home, and 4-H Support Group, and three Master Gardeners trained elsewhere, Connell and Donohue organized a local MG training program. The MG training course was to be taught by Advisors, Specialists, and professors from the UC system and the Butte County UCCE put out a call to enroll volunteers. In May of 2008 the inaugural group of Butte County Master Gardeners completed their training. The 17-week training program of weekly classes is now offered every other year in Butte County. The upcoming 2024 class will constitute our eighth cadre of graduates.
The Butte County MGs have come a long way since the first class of 21 volunteers graduated in 2008. Currently we have exactly 100 active Master Gardeners. We staff a Hotline for gardening questions which can be reached by phone at 530-552-5812 and by email at mgbutte@ucanr.com. Each spring and fall we present a public education workshop series covering a wide variety of topics. We've established a helpful and beautifully-designed website which contains a wealth of information and tips specifically focusing on our local gardening environment, as well as details about our upcoming activities. Every month we email a newsletter to subscribers. Our Gardening Guide and Three-Year Garden Journal contains information, tips, and note-taking space for every week of the year. You can find our outreach booths at local farmers markets and garden-related events. Twice a year we hold a plant sale, highlighting plants that grow well here. And on Fridays we publish an article on a gardening topic in our Real Dirt column in this newspaper as well as on the Real Dirt blog on our website.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County owe our inception to the foresight and hard work of Joseph Connell and Susan Donahue, Cooperative Extension Advisors Emeritus. Major portions of the Demonstration Garden were made possible by funding from the Farm, Home, and 4-H Support Group. And we owe our continued existence to our MG volunteers and all the gardeners and plant lovers in our region. Please consider joining our ranks! For more information, a list of upcoming informational meetings, and the on-line application, see our Join Us webpage.
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.
It's peak season for fruits and vegetables from now through September: peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, apricots, plums, berries … the list goes on and on. It's not unusual for a neighbor to drop off a bag of peaches, or to find a roadside stand offering melons, or to encounter a box of cucumbers or zucchini labeled with a “free” sign when out on a walk. Our farmers markets offer an amazing selection of locally-grown fruits and vegetables, and wild blackberries thrive on the banks of our creeks and rivers. If you find yourself in the enviable position of having more fresh produce than you can possibly consume or give away, it's time to start canning and preserving. You'll be glad you did when you can pull out a jar of homemade bread & butter pickles at Thanksgiving, or slather your own apricot jam on a piece of toast come February.
Apparently the ancient Greeks and Romans loved jams and jellies. Around 500 BC, traders began pulverizing over-ripe fruit, then boiling the juice and adding honey to turn what would have been waste into something useful. One of the first known cookbooks is De Re Coquinaria (“The Art of Cooking” in English), from the fourth century AD or earlier. It includes a recipe for jam which is simply fruit and sugar boiled together. Those living in northern climates with insufficient sunlight to properly dry fruits soon added this method to their food preservation techniques.
Toward the end of the 18th century, natural refrigeration became a means of preservation in areas where snow and ice were available. Holes were dug into the ground and meat was stored and covered with snow during the winter. This method of preservation reduced both enzymes and bacteria, keeping meat from going rancid. But it wasn't until the invention of mechanical refrigeration that cold storage became more widespread.
At around this same time in England, there was increasing need to feed the navy as well as arctic explorers over long periods of time. Drying, pickling, or preserving in jars were the only methods of longer-term food preservation. Metal cans came into the picture when Peter Durand, a British merchant, patented a method of storing food in cans on behalf of French national Phillippe de Girard who had invented the method in 1811. Durand sold the patent to Bryan Donkin, a British inventor and manufacturer. Donkin began processing meat in iron tins, and this canned meat made its way to the English Royal household. Several days after King George III and Queen Charlotte tasted the canned meat, Donkin received a letter from the Duke of Kent telling him how much the King and Queen had enjoyed the meal. Soon the manufacturing company of Donkin, Hall, and Gamble began distributing canned foods to the British navy and eventually selling canned perishables throughout England and across the Atlantic to merchants in New York City.
In the early years of the 20th century the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its first guide to home food preservation. “Canning Vegetables in the Home” was published in the Farmer's Bulletin 359 in May 1909; a year later, “Canning Peaches on the Farm” appeared in the same publication.
Since that time, home canning has played a critical role in important eras of American history: growing and preserving one's own food helped many citizens supplement rationed food supplies during World Wars I and II; home canning was a means of survival for many families during the Great Depression of the 1930s; and the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 1970s saw increased interest in preserving home-grown food. As many of us are well aware, a home canning resurgence occurred during the COVID pandemic, so much so that it became difficult to find canning jars for sale on grocery shelves.
The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources offers a Master Food Preserver Program in some counties (alas, not in Butte County; the closest program is in Yuba County). The Program's website contains all the information you need to start canning safely – including plenty of useful recipes.
If you'd like to try some very easy ways to preserve the summer's bounty, here are two simple no-fuss recipes.
Fruit Leather: Any fruit or combination of fruits works well
Wash fruit (peel stone fruits)
Puree three cups of your chosen fruit or fruit combination in a blender
Add a teaspoon of lemon or lime juice
Add a tablespoon of honey (optional)
Spread mixture on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper and either bake at 150 degrees or leave in the sun (covered with cheese cloth) until dry.
Bread & Butter Pickles:
Mix together: 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup cider or white vinegar
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
Slice three to five cucumbers into rounds about 3/16ths of an inch thick and put into the mixture cold. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes. Pack into jars and seal (or just pack into jars, forego the canning process and store in refrigerator – super easy!). Makes 2 pints.
Whiteflies are small, white-winged, low flying insects that flit erratically when disturbed. Ten species are common in California. Whiteflies feed on many crops, weeds, ornamentals, shrubs and trees, including citrus. As one host plant dries up or is harvested, they move on to another host. Eggs, laid on the underside of leaves, hatch and the young whiteflies gradually increase in size through four nymphal stages until the winged adult emerges. All stages of whiteflies, from the barely visible crawler to the winged adult, suck juices from leaves. A few whiteflies will not significantly damage plants, but large populations of the immature whiteflies can cause plant distortion, discoloration, or silvering of leaves. Like aphids, whiteflies excrete honeydew, so leaves may become sticky or covered with black sooty mold. Ants, drawn by the honeydew, fend off bugs that feed on whitefly larvae so controlling ants will aid in minimizing whitefly damage.
Landscaping berms are mounded hills of soil that can serve multiple functional and aesthetic purposes in the garden. A berm can be placed to block or change the flow of water across the property. It can prevent water from draining back toward a house foundation or prevent water from puddling in the wrong place. In an area of heavy soil, a berm can improve drainage to accommodate plants that require faster-draining soil. A berm can also improve an area of poor soil. Berms can be used to form “islands” of landscaped areas within larger and mostly un-landscaped areas.
Building a berm in your yard is a good do-it-yourself project, as long as you keep the berm to a manageable size. First, decide where you want to place the berm, taking into account how it might affect the movement of water across the space. Then determine the size and shape you want for the berm. An asymmetrical shape is generally more pleasing than a circular one. A good rule of thumb is to make the berm about four to six times longer than it is wide. A kidney shape works well for a berm at a corner of the yard. The berm should not be more than 18 to 24 inches tall, as a higher berm might be subject to erosion. Use a garden hose to lay out the size and shape of the berm. Make larger curves rather than tight turns.
If the berm isn't very tall and the slope is gradual, edging usually isn't necessary. If the berm is taller or has a steep slope, you may need a retaining wall to help keep the berm in place. A short wall of flagstones, dry stacked three to four deep, is all that's required. Or you may want to use stones or bricks to separate the berm from the surrounding area, even if they aren't necessary. On the other hand, you might prefer a more natural transition from ground level to the berm.
Once you have constructed the berm, it's time to add plants. Put taller plants at the back, especially if you are trying to create privacy or screen an undesirable view. Shorter plants work best on top and down the sides. Let trailing plants spill over rocks or trail downhill. Ornamental grasses work very well in a berm as their long roots can resist erosion and help hold soil in place. Select plants that look natural together: for example, cactus would look out of place planted next to a rose bush. Research the size of plants at maturity so you leave enough space between plants for them to grow without crowding each other.
Get inspiration for your berm garden design from the two berm gardens at the Master Gardeners Demonstration Gardens at Patrick Ranch (10381 Midway, Durham). The Berm Garden is just east of the Visitor Center. It has a retaining wall about three feet tall surrounding most of the garden, with the soil sloping to ground level on the open side. The Native Plant Garden is mulched with red lava fines (particles), against which the colors of the native plants “pop” when they are in bloom. The Demonstrations Gardens are free and open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 3pm.
Puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris) is an attractive green plant with small yellow flowers commonly seen growing prostrate along the side of the road. A native to Southern Europe, it's also referred to as “goathead.” However, underneath its foliage lies danger: spiky seedpods with needle-point spikes. If puncturevine is stepped on, it is painful to bare feet and dogs' paws; it will pierce and flatten bicycle tires. Because of its spiky seedpods puncturevine is also referred to as “caltrop,” after the spiked metal devices thrown on the roadway to stop vehicles. Caltrops have four projecting spikes with one spike always pointed up; just in the right position to puncture a tire or flip-flop, hence the similarity to puncturevine seedpods.
Unfortunately, there are is no easy way to control this noxious weed. For most homeowners, the mechanical control methods of hand removal or cutting the plant off at the taproot are most effective. Any seeds left on the ground must be removed by raking or sweeping. Use heavy gloves to protect hands from the spiky seedpods. Of course, as with any weed, it's best to remove it before it flowers and sets seeds. This is especially important for puncturevine, as seeds are viable for years, and can be spread by shoes or the wheels of lawn mowers or carts.
Biological control using several species of weevils have been tried but are not always effective. Chemical control of puncturevine in the home garden is often unnecessary. However, in heavily infested areas, or when hand removal is difficult, herbicide may be an option.
For more information on puncturevine see the IPM Pestnote No. 74128 on Puncturevine.