A new season of Master Gardener Workshops is underway! The series kicked off with “Fall Vegetable and Seed Starting” on August 23, and will conclude on December 6 with “Gardening for a Lifetime.” In all, this Fall Series totals 18 workshops, covering eleven all-new topics and seven important basics. 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.
A number of new workshops focus on issues related to our changing (and hotter) climate, including how to deal with heat in the garden; how to design your landscape for a hotter, drier climate; the benefits of native plants in our challenging environment; and steps you can take to manage your garden during prolonged drought conditions.
Interested in adding a new gardening skill? We've got workshops on bonsai; vertical gardening; companion planting; composting with worms (vermiculture); and the use of self-watering pots and planters.
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). A few workshops will be held at private residences; the workshop on native plants is a joint venture with the Paradise Garden Club and will take place in Paradise at the Terry Ashe Recreation Center. While most workshops are held during morning hours, this season several are being offered in the early evening (6 to 7:30 pm).
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, information on our Covid safety guidelines, and to register, visit our website.
Landscape Design for a Hotter Drier Climate (Wednesday 9/7, 6-7:30 pm). Learn to create areas in your garden that are more heat-adapted and use less water.
Self-Watering Pots and Planters (Friday 9/9, 10-11:30 am). Learn about different types of self-watering containers: how they work, the best planting mediums for them, and the kinds of plants that do and do not thrive in them.
Companion Planting with Ornamentals (Saturday 9/10, 10-11 am). Attract pollinators, deter pests and offer food for wildlife by combining plants that give one another the nutrients, shade and/or support they need.
Vermiculture: Why Do I Keep Throwing This Stuff Away When the Worms Would Love to Eat It? (Monday 9/19, 10-11:30 am). Learn how to make a simple bin that uses worms to compost kitchen waste, creating compost for your garden.
The 3 Most Important Things You Can Do in Your Garden (Thursday 9/22, 11 am -12:30 pm). Best practices for soil health, plant health and people's health are all connected. Three processes are key: no till; no bare soil, and no herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers.
Propagation (Tuesday 9/27, 9-10:30 am). Learn when and how to propagate woody perennials and divide plants.
Lawn Conversion to Lower Water Use and Add Interest to Your Garden (Wednesday 10/5, 6-7:30 pm). This workshop takes you through the steps of taking out a lawn area and, eventually, replanting it to lower water bills, encourage more wildlife and create a more diverse garden.
Bonsai (Friday, 10/7, 10-11:30 am). Learn the pruning and training techniques needed to create a beautiful miniature tree.
Heat in the Garden—and What to do About It (Tuesday 10/11, 10-11:30 am). Learn to recognize symptoms of heat stress on different crops, and how to minimize these harmful effects.
Composting (Tuesday, 10/18, 10-11:30 am). This workshop covers a variety of approaches to creating compost, from simple to complex.
Vertical Gardening plus Edible Gardening (Thursday 10/27, 10-11:30 am). Maximize your garden space by growing fruits, vegetables, and vines upwards!
Drought Talk (Wednesday 11/9, 6-7:30 pm). Learn to take precautions in your garden that will help you define your gardening priorities and plan for continuing drought conditions.
Native Plants (Monday, 11/14, 1-2 pm). This workshop will take place in Paradise, where gardeners face challenges created by the Camp Fire as well as our continuing drought. Native plants and other sun-loving and drought-tolerant plants help conserve water and attract pollinators.
Drip Irrigation Installation and Maintenance (Wednesday 11/16, 6-7:30 pm). An overview of different drip irrigation systems, how to install them, and how to troubleshoot problems and make repairs.
Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs (Tuesday 11/29, 12-1:30 pm). Learn when and how to prune for size and shape, and the right tools for various pruning jobs.
Fruit Tree Pruning (Saturday 12/3, 10-11:30 am). Different fruit trees bear fruit in different ways; this workshop includes a demonstration of the best way to prune various fruit trees.
Gardening for a Lifetime (Tuesday 12/6, 10-11:30 am). Practical advice about plants, labor-saving techniques, tools, and exercises to help us continue to garden successfully as we (inevitably) age.
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) 538-7201. 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 Hotline webpage.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are offering a wide variety of new and encore Public Education Workshops this season. Some will be held in person; others will be offered on Zoom. Most of the in-person workshops will take place at our Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch in Durham; a few are scheduled at private residences. Space is limited for all in-person workshops. All workshops are free; registration is required. To register, and for more details and regular updates as they become available, check our website.
We begin March with a new workshop on the Summer Vegetable Garden, Thursday, March 10, from 10 to 11:30 am at our Demonstration Garden. Get a head start on planning your summer vegetable garden! This workshop starts with the basics of what to plant and how to prepare your soil and planting beds, and then highlights best management practices for growing and harvesting summer vegetables. Topics include pest management, irrigation and water conservation, crop rotation, and succession planting for long-lasting vegetable harvests.
Three days later, on Monday, March 21 from 10 to 11:30 am, we explore the world of Native Bees, at the home and orchard of another Master Gardener bee expert in Paradise. Learn about the Blue Orchard Mason Bee, a native pollinator perfect for a backyard that contains several fruit trees and early flowering plants. Mason bees do not sting or provide honey, but they do provide superior pollination for three months with little effort. The current understanding of colony collapse disorder (which affects only honeybees) will also be discussed.
We begin April with a workshop in the Demonstration Garden exploring Companion Planting on Tuesday the 5th from 10 to 11:30 am. Companion Planting is the art of arranging certain plants in proximity to one another so that they attract beneficial insects and pollinators, deter unwanted pests, and offer shelter and food for other critters. Companion plants provide one another with things they need, such as nutrients, shade, and physical support. We will show you how to accomplish this in the home vegetable garden, focusing on the potential symbiotic relationships between various vegetable, herb, and flower combinations. We will also include time for you to analyze your own garden and consider plant combinations that can work there.
On Wednesday, April 6 from 10 am to noon, we take a deep dive into the subject of Biochar. Held in the outdoor classroom at our Demonstration Garden, this workshop begins with an overview of what biochar is, how it is made, and how you can use it in your garden, followed by a live demonstration of how to mix biochar into raised beds. A brief tour of the biochar experiment taking place at our Demonstration Garden will be included.
A new and timely workshop exploring Soil Science is offered via Zoom on Friday, April 8 from 11 am to 1 pm. You will discover how to build a more resilient garden, work less to maintain it, and help prepare for our dryer, hotter summers. We will discuss garden practices to move away from so we can focus instead on farming the microbes below ground rather than the plants above it, for healthier gardens with fewer weeds and pests. And we'll look at biochar, a long-term investment in garden vibrancy. This workshop invites you to imagine life underground and prepare the way for a new kind of gardening.
Learn all about Gardening with Chickens on Tuesday, April 26 from 10:30 am to noon at a private residence in Chico. Backyard chickens offer more benefits than their fresh eggs. The focus of this workshop is how to create a symbiotic relationship between you, your garden, and your chickens. We will explore optimal garden design, including the selection of plants that benefit chickens, and we will introduce a number of resources on raising chickens that will help you optimize your space in relation to the needs of your chickens.
COVID Safety Information: Maintaining the safety of our volunteers and workshop participants is a top priority. Please follow the safety guidelines below when attending a UC Master Gardener workshop (guidelines are subject to change):
Face Mask Use: No face masks are required for outdoor activities; face masks are required for indoor activities.
Practice Social Distancing: Do not participate in any in-person activities if you are sick or have COVID-19 symptoms or if you or someone you have been in contact with has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Hygiene: We maintain safe hygiene practices by cleaning high-touch areas often.
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 (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.
The Master Gardeners are offering our Fall series of free workshops online via Zoom, beginning September 10. Like the in-person, hands-on workshops offered in the past, these six classes will be packed with useful and valuable gardening information. One of the benefits of using Zoom is that there will be no limit on the number of participants, so we hope to reach more individuals than was possible with the previous in-person format. Listed below are short descriptions of the Fall workshops. For more details and to register, please visit our website. Note that registration continues to be required for all workshops.
Please Note: The September 10 workshop has been rescheduled for Thursday, October 15, 10 to 11:30am.
We are excited to offer a new three-part series, Gardening from the Ground Up, which covers principles that can revolutionize the way you garden. In Part 1: Minimize Disruption, we will explore the interaction of plants and microbes and how to support the tiniest animals in your garden; examine the effects of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides; and discuss the advantages of No Till gardening. You'll come away with lots of ideas for starting your fall garden from the ground up. In Part 2: No Bare Soil, we'll investigate compost -- What does compost do? Is all compost created equal? And then we'll dive into bacterial- and fungal-dominant composts, discuss the principle of keeping live roots in the soil, and offer examples of succession planting you can utilize this fall. In Part 3: Diversity we'll look at the evidence supporting the values of diversity in the garden and consider what that means for the home gardener. We'll review the research on the near-magical phenomenon of quorum sensing, and then discuss cover crops, implementation plans, and the possibility of retraining your eyes. The Gardening From the Ground Up workshops will be held from 2 to 3 pm on successive Thursdays (September 17 and 24, and October 1st).
The Fall 2020 Workshop Series will conclude with an in-depth look at Plant Viruses on Tuesday, October 13, from 10 to 11:30 am. Most gardeners are aware of plant diseases that can wreak havoc in their gardens. If you grow fruit trees, you may be confronted with curled, reddened peach leaves (peach leaf curl fungus). If you grow apples or pears, your trees may sometimes look like they were scorched with a blow torch (fire blight bacterium). But did you know that viruses can also lurk in the leaves, stems, and fruit of your garden vegetables and flowers? This workshop will cover how viruses behave, how they are transmitted, and how to identify and manage them.