- Author: Jane Callier
If you need some more inspiration, there are many websites with suggested new year gardening resolutions. Most of these suggestions include building a compost bin, growing your own food, doing something beneficial for nature, and adopting a natural approach to gardening that more closely mimics nature.
A few examples are below.
Treehugger
https://www.treehugger.com/new-years-resolutions-for-gardeners-4860393
The Treehugger website has some good general advice, quoted below:
Treehugger is the only modern sustainability site that offers advice, clarity, and inspiration for both the eco-savvy and the green living novice. If you're among the almost 50% of Americans who statistics show make New Year's resolutions, be sure to remember gardening when setting your goals for a new year. In fact, consider putting gardening at the top of your list.
Gardening can help you achieve some of the other resolutions that are often at the top of resolution lists, such as slowing down, living a simpler life, and exercising.
Suggested resolutions
- Reduce Your Lawn Area
- Add Native Plants
- Add One New Sustainable Method to Your Gardening Routine
- There are many sustainable practices you can use to increase your gardening enjoyment. One example would be to resolve to eliminate chemical fertilizers.
- Another would be to install one or more rain barrels to capture rain runoff from the roof.
- You could also start using a drip or soaker hose that would put water directly on the plant root zone rather than broadcasting it to unintended places from an oscillating sprinkler.
Garden Design
https://www.gardendesign.com/holiday/new-years-resolutions.html
These are the topics they suggest as resolutions. Check out the website for details for each:
- Choose plants strategically
- Continue learning
- Care for pollinators and wildlife
- Make maintenance easier
- Deter pests naturally
- Nurture nature
Chicago Botanic Gardens https://www.chicagobotanic.org/ has an exhaustive list of resolutions. Some of these suggestions might better be described as projects, since they are “one and done” instead of the concept of a continued commitment. Their ideas are divided into seasons; a few are listed here.
- Hang a bird feeder.
- Build a compost bin.
- Invest in an excellent pruner.
- Prune a crabapple or pear tree into an espalier.
- Get to know orchids at the Orchid Show.
- Build a raised bed.
Spring resolutions
- Start a compost pile.
- Test your soil.
- Plant flowers in Pantone's color of the year: rose quartz and serenity blue.
- Switch to organic fertilizers.
- Weave native plants into your flower beds.
- Plant milkweed for monarch butterflies.
- Provide a water source for bees and butterflies.
Summer resolutions
- Install a rain barrel.
- Plant peppers in honor of the genus Capsicum, the 2016 Herb of the Year.
- Mix vegetables and flowers together in beds and borders.
- Transform a balcony or patio into a container garden.
Fall resolutions
- Grow three new varieties of lettuce.
- Rethink all that lawn.
- Plant a berry-bearing tree or shrub to feed the birds.
- Preserve your vegetable harvest by learning how to can.
- Rake and save fallen leaves for winter mulch for your garden beds.
- Grow your own garlic.
- Add allium bulbs in fall to deter deer.
- Save seeds from flowers and vegetables to plant next year.
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.
- Author: Bob Niklewicz PT MG
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.
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
![Warming up by moving around... Warming up by moving around...](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/napaevents/blogfiles/103017.png)
- Author: Jane Callier
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
- Author: Donna Woodward, Field Test Committee Chair
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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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
![Super Bush September 14th Super Bush September 14th](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/napaevents/blogfiles/101974.jpg)
![Inca Jewel September 14th after Pruning Dying Leaves Inca Jewel September 14th after Pruning Dying Leaves](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/napaevents/blogfiles/101975.jpg)
- Author: Cynthia Kerson
The last tour of the year occurred on August 4th 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"?
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.