By Bob Niklewicz PT MG
Archimedes once said, “Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.”
In Mechanical Engineering terms Archimedes would be the force, the long stick would be the lever, the rock would be fulcrum or axis and the world would be the resistance or load. The longer the lever, the greater the mechanical force is multiplied and the easier it would be to move the resistance. Granted, it would have to be an incredibly long lever, but theoretically it could be done. (Figure 1) This set-up would be called a class 1 lever. We don't intend to move the world, so how does this apply to a gardener?
Mechanically, there are three classes of levers. Archimedes was using a class 1 lever. It is the same principle you use when you are on a seesaw with a child. The trick is where do you place the fulcrum. The closer the fulcrum is to the resistance (weight) and with a longer Lever, the more you can move. So a little person can lift a bigger person if the Fulcrum is closer to the big one. (Figure 2) In a smaller tool such as a pair of scissors or pruners, the screw or pin in the scissors or pruners, is the fulcrum. (Figure 3)
Have you noticed that when you try to use the tip of a long pair of scissors to cut something, it is harder to cut than if the cut is made closer to the screw? That is because leverage works both ways. The resistance at the tip can increase your effort to close the scissors. If the child on the left side in figure 2 was considered to be at the tip of a pair of scissors, the person on the right side would be considered the effort to move the child on the left. More effort (weight) is needed on the right to close the scissors. So when cutting an item, branch, stem, cord etc, try to get the item as close as possible to the fulcrum. That will take less force from your hand and less strain to your muscles.
How about if you are digging up rocks or weeds? Lengthening the lever or moving the fulcrum closer to the object to be moved will make the job easier. In figure 4 there are two weeders. The one on the top has a greater curve, (think bigger fulcrum) that will make it a little easier to get results for digging smaller weeds. In figure 5 there is a longer handle and it is using a piece of wood as a Fulcrum close to the weed to pop the weed up. In figure 6 you simply push down from higher up on the handle (longer lever) and up the weed comes.
For the bigger pruning jobs, what else could you use? How about some long handled loppers, figure 7. They work well on the bigger branches having longer handles that gives you more leverage. Also note the size of the jaws in figure 8. They are short so you have to use them close to the fulcrum, but very wide to tolerate the force the long handles generate.
Use tools that allow you to “leverage” a task without hurting your body. Be an Archimedes, not a patient. Watch for part 2 on gardening using leverage in the next post of Spill the Beans.
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:
Information links:
UHSBerkeley.edu-ergonomics tips for gardening at home
https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ergonomics_tips_for_gardening_at_home.pdf
Margaret Legg
As we all know rainfall this year has been extremely low. According to UCCE the rainfall total for this calendar year in the Carneros and Oakville region is recorded as 4.51 inches. If one considers the “rainy” season from October 2021 to the present the total would be 20.86 inches, it's still quite below our average annual rainfall of 26-28 inches as referenced by City of Napa Utilities/Water Division. We all have a responsibility to do what we can to conserve this precious commodity and analyze our usage. Give cold tap water that would otherwise go down the drain a second chance and water something outside. Every drop counts.
Compost & Mulch…the secret sauce to reducing your water usage in your garden.
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Mulch |
Mulch |
Mulch |
Mulch |
No Mulch |
No Mulch |
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As organic mulch breaks down, nutrients are released into the soil. |
Mulch keeps sunlight out, minimizing evaporation. This helps retain water and keep moisture at the roots. |
Without sun weed seeds are suppressed |
Mulch insulates plant roots, protecting them from temperature fluctuations. |
Without mulch heat builds up in the soil and moisture is lost to evaporation. |
Without mulch, rain, and wind cause soil to erode. |
The benefits of compost and mulching:
- Insulates the soil
- Reduces weed seed germination
- Can save 20-30 gallons of water/1000 sq ft each time you water.
- Reduces waste that ends up in landfill
- Amends and improves soil health
- So many more benefits…win-win!
There are multiple options when it comes to compost methods and mulch choices. See references below regarding composting methods including vermicomposting (worm castings). One of the best options for compost to purchase is our own state of the art Napa Recycling Facility.
Watering
Shrink the lawn
- Lawns offer the greatest potential for water conservation. Consider lawn alternatives; reduce your water schedule; water between 3am-8am; explore water reducing sprinkler heads
- Explore the City of Napa's Cash for Grass program (see reference)
- Control weeds. Weeds complete with desired plants for water and nutrients
- Group plants with similar exposure and water needs. Look for native or drought tolerant plants.
- Water deeply, infrequently, efficiently, and always use a timing device.
Watering systems/application options
- Hose and sprinkler: typical garden hose uses 9-17/gal/min. depending on water pressure. I filled a 5 gal. bucket in 25 seconds at 80 psi. A water saving hose nozzle can reduce that usage to 2.5/gal/min.
- Pop-up sprinklers: average use is 4/gal/min/sprinkler. There are dozens of different types using varying amounts of water, and some frequently have overspray and run-off.
- Soaker hose: uses 1/gal/ft/hr.
Drip irrigation Tubing:
- Some common size tubing options are: 1/4”, 1/2”, 5/8” plain tubing
- Pressure compensating emitter tubing: 1/2” with emitters every 12” or 18” uses 0.8-1.0 gph/emitter (depends on the brand)
- Pressure compensating emitter tubing: 1/4” with emitters every 6” or 12” uses 0.5 gph/ft
Emitters:
- Applies water directly where it is placed; eliminates overspray and runs off.
- Drip emitters allow water to drip or seep into the root zone; micro sprayers direct water into the air like a miniature sprinkler head. Both have barbed ends that push into tubing or in the ends of micro tubing. Inline emitters fit between lengths of micro tubing and create custom systems.
- Output rates for emitters range from 1/2-2 gal/hr. and can compensate for plants with diverse watering needs that are run on the same tubing line.
With this unprecedented time of extreme heat and limited amount of water it seems clear that composting and mulching your garden, along with drip irrigation are clear winners for keeping our gardens alive and the soil healthy.
On a final note, during the rainy season (fingers crossed) there are multiple options to save some of that precious liquid. Roof runoff offers tremendous amounts of water that can be put to better use than rushing down the street to be deposited in the storm drain, only to end up in our streams and eventually the ocean, carrying with it pollutants from cars, pesticides, garbage, construction refuge, cigarette butts, and the list goes on.
There are many water saving measures that can be created from simple to complicated:
- Rain barrels/tanks/cisterns
- Graywater catchment
- Underground reservoirs
- Rain 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.
Photo credits: Wild Valley Farms with permission
Information Links:
City of Napa-Cash for Grass info https://www.cityofnapa.org/585/Cash-For-Grass
Napa County Rainwater harvesting https://www.napawatersheds.org/managed_files/Document/5748/rain%20harv_updated_2013.pdf
Recycling center https://naparecycling.com/residents/napa-recycling-facility/
Carneros rainwater measurement station https://cenapa.ucanr.edu/about/weather/?weather=station&station=109
UCMG Napa County-Composting information https://napamg.ucanr.edu/Master_Gardener_Programs/Composting/
By Julie Pramuk
In a recent UC Master Gardener workshop at our new Las Flores Learning garden we focused on dealing with the recent heat wave and its effects in our gardens. We outlined several topics to consider, with in- depth demonstrations and examples of:
- Healthy Soil components
- Water needs: too much or too little
- What does heat stress look like
- Right Plant, right place
Consider watering needs by locating plants needing more water closer to your house where you can monitor their water needs. Plants that can get by with less water could be placed further out on your property. Use separate valves for different watering needs. Water judiciously to avoid wasting water. Provide temporary shade for your plants with shade cloth, burlap, or some other covering for severe day or night temperatures. Using umbrellas or chairs is a quick and easy way to shade plants. Don't prune off dried or dead parts of your plants during a heat wave. Wait until summer ends and you feel safe to prune. The dried sunburned parts of plants act to shade the leaves underneath. Green parts of sunburned leaves will help the plant to photosynthesize and generate new leaves.
Plant in the fall or early winter when, hopefully, there is a promise of rain and plants can establish a good root system. Skip fertilizing in a heat wave. Plants can't spare the energy to take up fertilizer and the fertilizer may burn the roots. Remember to mulch, mulch, mulch your garden. Adding a 3-4 inch layer around your shrubs and trees will help keep the soil several degrees cooler and prevent your soil from drying out. Keep mulch 6 inches away from the trunks of trees. Finally, there are times when our gardens suffer for various reasons: an irrigation system breaks down or you are away for a time and you wonder if a plant or tree be revived. Give your tree or plants a chance to respond. After a freeze, for example, a tree or plant may need a season to recover. Be patient. Different plants have their own way of responding and healing just like humans.
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: Jane Callier
The UC Master Gardeners of Napa County have a series of documents of useful garden practices in their Healthy Garden Tips collection, including microclimate documents listed below.
Information Links:
Healthy Garden Tips
Right Plant, Right Place https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnapa/files/153367.pdf
Cool Season Gardens for Napa County https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnapa/files/153368.pdf
Creating Microclimates in the Garden https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnapa/files/153509.pdf
Climate Zones Map of Napa County https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnapa/files/254550.pdf
UC Sonoma County-Right plant right place
https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Sustainable_Home_Gardening/Right_Plant_Right_Place/
UC IPM-dealing with thermal injury or high temperatures
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/ENVIRON/thermal.html
by Carole Kent
The power of caring and acting, and I emphasize EVERY action to care for the Earth (capital E) and earth (small e) is necessary and important. Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist from Sweden puts it this way, "no one is too small to make a difference".
Climate change is obvious and it affects everything. We can all work to stop and reverse this damage, and it all begins with soil. We can cultivate an attitude of caring and relationship with soils as we understand more about the life of the soil.
Healthy soil is teeming with life: approximately 8 billion microorganisms live in 1 tsp. of soil. Healthy soil has highly complex and organized relationships where everything is connected. Carbon is essential to all life and carbon use and sequestration is out of balance. By improving the health of our soil we help correct the imbalance, at the same time strengthening plant's ability to withstand increasing heat. Plants draw down and sequester carbon, carbon helps feed the microbial life in the soil which helps feed the plant, a true win (slowing climate change), win (feeding the microbes), win (feeding the plant).
There are many ways to increase soil health with innumerable benefits:
- Increase soil organic matter: All types of soil benefit:sand, clay & silt, because organic matter increases water retention,4" of compost can decrease water use by 40%, and compost attracts and feeds soil microorganisms.
- Keep soil covered: It can reduce soil temperatures dramatically, reduce evaporation, reduce weeds, reduce compaction and erosion.
- Practice judicious water use: Water in early morning and use drip irrigation, it reduces evaporation and places water next to roots
- Avoid chemical fertilizer and herbicides and pesticides: Chemicals kill the life in the soil, birds, bees, beneficial insects, leach into streams and lakes, contaminating water sources
- Maximize living roots, plant cover crops: Soil organisms need to be fed carbon, carbon comes from plants roots, roots enable carbon sequestration
- Increase plant diversity: Nature loves diversity, monocrops invite pests and disease. greater diversity above ground increases diversity below ground
- Minimize soil disturbance-no till: Disturbing the soil destroys the life in it and breaks up the soil food web, requiring rebuilding of fungal hyphae that link plants sharing water, nutrients and warnings of pest invasions. It breaks up aggregates and releases carbon into the atmosphere, allows water to evaporate and brings up weed seeds and creates hard pan
- Avoid soil compaction-don't walk on soil: It squeezes air out and soils have less ability to hold water, and thus can cause erosion
Our future depends on us taking action. Taking action depends on knowledge, caring and being aware that everything is connected. We are part of, not apart from this magnificent web of life. Deborah Koons Garcia, a documentary filmmaker says, "soil is one of the true miracles of the planet and we treat it like dirt."
Our calling is to change that.
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: Opensource image
Information links:
UC ANR Healthy Soils for California https://ucanr.edu/sites/soils/
Healthy Soil Basics https://ucanr.edu/sites/soils/Soils_101/
Tips to improve your garden soil https://ucanr.edu/sites/soils/Soils_for_Homes_-_Gardens/
Soils and Nutrients https://ucanr.edu/sites/Soils_and_Nutrients/
Cynthia Kerson
With the weather getting warmer by the year, it's time we recognize the difference between heat and water stresses in our plants. The temperature is averaging 83°, and according to www.GreenCastOnline.com, a service provided by a fertilizer company, soil temperatures have been averaging about 81° in Napa and 85° in Calistoga. Lately, these temperatures have been as high as 84° and 88°, respectively. This company wants to sell you lawn fertilizers, so their warning system is in place to alert when certain weeds or insects might appear because the soil of your lawn reaches the temperature they thrive in.
Most of the plants we grow in our gardens like the soil temperature to be between 65-75°. When the soil gets too hot, they mitigate the effect by wilting, bolting, getting sunburn and dropping leaves. What is the most common, knee-jerk, reaction to this? Water, water, water. However, hot soil and air temperatures don't always correlate with not enough water. In fact, too much water in the soil could contribute to the problem by suffocating the roots, so it's important to recognize the signs of heat stress and manage that. The first line of action is to mulch. I'm sure you've heard a Master Gardener or two assert the importance of mulching. Mulched soil (bark, hay, rocks [sometimes], and leaving leaves), are all forms of mulch. Unmulched soil generally follows the fluctuations of the air temperature and this is especially true in raised beds. Mulched soil tends to stay consistent throughout the daily cycle.
Another way to cool the soil, and hence the plant, is to provide shade cloth, which can cool the air by as much as 10°. In this case, since you are cooling, and not trying to protect from frost, leave the sides open so air can circulate but is cooler due to shade protection of the sun. This will also keep the humidity level constant.
How are heat and water stress different? The most common sign for both too much and not enough water is yellowing of leaves. Mottled leaves can also be a sign of either. The gardener needs to look beyond these symptoms to decide which it is. Overwatering may be expressed by droopy, floppy leaves that will become lighter green than the natural color of the plant's leaves, whereas under-watered plants wilt from the stem and may lose leaves.
When overwatered, the droopy stems occur because the plant loses turgidity. Turgidity is the pressure against the plant's cell walls from the amount of water within them, causing them to be erect, like a water balloon. Without enough water to support the shape of the cell, they'll flatten, or become flaccid, and when enough cells have lost shape, the stems wilt. This is the most obvious sign to determine whether the plant is under- as opposed to over-watered.
An overwatered plant may also shed leaves – but for a different reason: this is because the roots may be experiencing rot due to limited access to oxygen and nutrients in the soil. If you see this, obviously don't water more. Removing the plant and running the roots under water to clean them, removing severely damaged roots, and repotting or replanting is your best, albeit not guaranteed, way to resolve root rot.
A sign of an under-watered plant is leaf drop. Before they drop, though, their tips may brown, and they'll look dull and lack-luster. The plant will put more energy into survival and less into leaf and blossom development. If chronically under-watered, the leaves won't grow back. If intermittent, the leaves will cycle through starting and dying off. Obviously, the resolution is giving the plant water, but in doses. Don't flood the plant out of guilt. Water until you feel wet soil at about 2” depth and remain on whatever schedule works to maintain that level. Removing any blooms or imminent blooms will help the plant put its resources into preparation.
Knowing whether a plant is thirsty, drowning, or experiencing heat stroke is vital to its care. Recognize heat stress and resolve it by maintaining a healthy layer of mulch, covering with shade cloth, or possibly moving the plant to an area where the soil can remain cooler on hot days. If watering is the issue, respond with the appropriate measures discussed above. Hopefully your plant will come back and thrive.
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.
Diagram: https://qsstudy.com/turgidity-definition-importance/
Reference: OSU extension-heat stress https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/flowers-shrubs-trees/heat-wave-garden-how-identify-prevent-heat-stress-plants
