Fall is upon us, but the work continues in the garden.  In the spring and summer months, warming up is almost as easy as walking out the door and letting the sun shine on you. Warmup is as simple as walking through the garden and looking at what needs to be done. You are warmed up when you have the urge to unzip a jacket or windbreaker and put down your coffee.

However, nowadays when you go outside, the light might be there but the warmth is lacking, yet your body still needs to warm up. Let's look at the easy way of doing this in cooler weather.

BASIC WARMUP PROTOCOL BEFORE STARTING GARDENING TASKS

 

Stretching starts at the top by reaching up and forwards over your head as far as you can easily go. Then bring your elbows back behind you as far as you can, stretching the front of your shoulders and chest. Do the motions SLOWLY by breathing in on the way up, then blowing out slowly through pursed lips while moving elbows back. Take 5-10 seconds to go through the motions ending with arms behind you. Do 3 reps.

 

 

Left: Stretching your trunk is done by placing your thumbs and hands just above belt level and slowly leaning backwards over your hands (DO NOT bend your head backwards while you do the ex.). Hold for 5-10 seconds and return to upright posture. Repeat 3 times. Left Middle: Hold a stick or long tool, slowly twisted as far as you can to the right then to the left taking 10 seconds to complete the motions. Repeat 3 times. Middle Right: Do a partial squat by going down slowly ONLY as far as you can comfortably go. Hold for 3-5 seconds then return to standing. Repeat 3x's. Right: Stand with your feet apart, shift your weight sideways stretching slowly the inside of your thighs. Hold 5-10 sec. at the end of each motion. Repeat 3x's each leg.        

Left:With a stick or tool, reach overhead as far as you can comfortably go, then side bend to one side. Hold 5-10 seconds then side bend to the other side. Slowly do 3 repetitions to each side. Left Middle: Now that you are feeling warmed up, start circling your hips 5-10 times each direction. Middle Right: If you really get into it, try a Hula Hoop! Right: Or maybe you should quit while you are ahead.

Just like a car engine that goes from a cold start to full speed can be damage the motor and transmission, your body needs a little warmth to lubricate the body. Increasing the flow of blood to warm the muscles and tendons keeps the body moving easier. As a physical therapist would say, “use them or lose them.” Your muscles need to be warm for flexibility to last longer. It is not hard to do; just don't spill your coffee while doing them.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photos by: Olga Morham
Demonstrations by: Dr. Bob Niklewicz PT DHSc

 

Many of us have probably wondered about the landscaping decisions of previous owners when moving into a home.  This was true for us in several instances. Why were azaleas planted where there is blazing afternoon sun? Why did one of the conifers shoot up twenty feet before any branching occurred? Most of all, why would someone plant a ponderosa pine, a tree that seemingly loses every needle every fall, be planted next to the house? It wouldn't be so bad if the needles fell all at once, but that is not the case. Starting in late September, their leaves start to fall. Fast forward to January and they are still coming down. I know people gripe about raking leaves in the fall, but a ponderosa pine is in a different category altogether. The needles are hard to rake and impossible to sweep with a broom. They “decorate” bushes by straddling small branches and each one must be removed by hand. Being very lightweight and aerodynamically shaped, they find the furthest reaches of the yard (and the neighbors). The needles grow in groups of three to a fascicle, and as stated above, these trees drop thousands of needles every year. The typical needle retention is three to four years, which means that one quarter to one-third of the needles in a ponderosa pine tree come down every year.

After we moved into the house, we had the tree pruned. It started to ooze sap so sticky it might rival super glue. To step on a bead of sap doomed a pair of shoes to being outside footwear only. Ponderosa pines belong in a non-subdivision area, i.e., a forest. Clearly, not much research was done when the tree was planted years ago. Our tree is large, so it has been there for quite a while. The Ponderosa pine is a fast-growing tree and can grow more than 12 inches per year. At full maturity, it will reach a height of 125 feet.

Is there anything positive to share about this poor, huge tree? Ponderosa pines are handsome trees with their reddish-brown bark and invoke the western United States. They are drought resistant trees, fire-resistant (as long as there aren't thousands of dry needles on the ground), and provide habitat for wildlife. They also make great lumber.  Master Gardeners are taught right plant, right place from the beginning of training class. Given the right place, that being a very large property or a forest, this plant is a beauty to behold.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photos by Jane Callier

Summer is winding down and the produce from our gardens is starting to wane.  I just cut down my Prairie Fire tomato that I had planted as part of our experiment with growing tomatoes in containers.  Our Napa Master Gardeners Field Test Group embarked on a trial following the tomato sale in April to see how we would fare with growing tomatoes in containers.  We also enlisted input from 42 members of the public who purchased tomatoes at the sale. 

The three tomato varieties that were selected for the trial were Prairie Fire, Renee's Super Bush, and Inca Jewel.  Of the three, Prairie Fire was the most successful for me.  It produced lots of delicious grape-type tomatoes.  They were not quite as sweet as Sun Gold or similar cherry tomatoes, but I found the flavor more interesting.  Lately the plant was starting to look stressed, and the fruit was getting splotchy, so I decided to terminate that plant.

My Super Bush started out very lush and green but after a couple of months some of the lower leaves began to turn brown and yellow. It has produced some nice tomatoes, and there are still green ones on the bush, but the harvest is not what I would consider plentiful.  I have trimmed away all the dying leaves and hope it will revive enough to ripen the remaining tomatoes.  I either watered too much, too little, or maybe it was a mishap with fertilizer.  I think I had applied a too-strong solution because the leaf problem happened right after that. 

The Inca Jewel met with a similar fate, and, while some of the tomatoes look fine, others are hard and mottled.  Again, I trimmed all the dying leaves and am waiting for the last of the tomatoes to ripen. 

A survey will soon be emailed to all of those who signed up to participate in the trial.  Here are some photos of my plants now.  I hope to get lots of input from all who participated in the trial. 

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Prairie Fire dying September 14th

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photo credits: Donna Woodward

The last tour of the year occurred on August 4^th and there was a great showing of Master Gardeners interested in learning from each other. We started off at a prolific property on Congress Valley Road where vegetable gardens are intermingled with pollinizers and chickens (well maybe not the chickens, but they and their offspring were definitely present).

In addition to the vegetable gardens, there are a few fruit trees interspersed amongst the many olive trees. Italian plum and a 4-type hybrid apple stood out .

Within the gardens is a bed of Floriani red flint corn, grown specifically for making polenta. This MG's latest interest is to take garden areas and make them pollinator-friendly. It's succeeding in a big way and attracting lots of bees. He's also converted a vegetable bed into a California native garden, probably as a result of his time spent leading similar efforts at the Las Flores Learning Garden.

We all admired the tree in the front yard –maybe a bit too much. One visiting MG was curious and picked at a spot. You can see what's underneath the papery bark, prompting the question, “is this what inspired paper"?

Next up, we toured a re-imagined backyard in downtown Napa. The first time many of us were on this property was during a tour in 2021. What a transformation greeted us. A straight-forward lawn, bordered by trees, shrubs and flowers was replaced by a lush native habitat with softscape walkways–a pollinator paradise. This MG absolutely followed all the gardening rules. The area was lasagna composted about a year ago and planted with a variety of pollinator friendly vegetation. Among the many varieties planted were aster monch, lion's tail, buddleia, verbena, coreopsis, gaillardia, and yarrow, all featured in the Las Flores Learning Garden's Pollinator garden that this MG leads. The lawn was also removed from her front yard and mulch covers it. The front yard is covered in bark mulch awaiting her decision about what to plant in the shady area.

Fall fast approaches, and with it comes the perfect time to consider adding native trees, shrubs and flowers to create your own pollinator garden. A great resource for ideas to get you started (or improving) a native habitat for pollinators is: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/pollinator-gardening.  The Napa chapter of the California Native Plant Society, https://chapters.cnps.org/napa/ , has information about planting and care of California natives and holds semi-annual plant sales at their location in Skyline Park. In addition, plan a trip to the Las Flores Learning Garden at 4300 Linda Vista in Napa to tour the pollinator and native plant gardens.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.