Both walnuts and almonds were commercial crops in Napa County until grapes took over. In fact the Hartley walnut, now the most widely planted variety in the state, was developed in Napa County.

Pistachios, pecans and chestnuts are also appropriate trees for Napa County, although they have never been grown here commercially. All of them make nice shade trees, and if you can beat the squirrels to the crop, you can harvest some nuts as well. These nuts mature at slightly different times but have similar harvesting and storing requirements. Chestnuts require some different treatment for harvesting and hulling and don't require drying.

Walnuts ripen from early September through early November. They are considered ripe when the hull (also called the husk) darkens and becomes loose.

Pecans mature from late September through November and are considered ripe when the outer husk splits open and the shell within is completely brown.

Almonds ripen from early August through late September. They are ready to harvest when the hulls split and expose the shell with the nut inside.

Pistachios ripen from late August to early September and are mature when the hull changes from green to red and you can easily remove the nut from the shell.  

Chestnuts are ripe when they fall to the ground. The nuts on a chestnut tree don't ripen evenly, so do not knock them off to harvest them.

For other nuts, you can use a pole or rubber mallet to knock the crop from the trees. Wear head and eye protection to prevent injury, and spread tarps under the trees to keep the nuts clean and prevent contamination from soil fungus. Collect fallen nuts promptly to 

Remove the hulls soon after harvest to prevent spoilage and nut darkening. Use metal hardware cloth with a half-inch mesh, available at hardware stores. Rubbing the hulls against the mesh will help break them off. To make the job even easier, mount the mesh screen on a wood frame. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands when hulling walnuts. The hulls contain chemical compounds called phenols that can stain hands and irritate skin.prevent insect and animal damage.

For chestnuts, which have a spiny husk, you will need heavy leather gloves.

All nuts except for chestnuts need to be dried if you intend to store them. If you fail to dry them sufficiently, they may develop mold and turn rancid quickly.

To dry nuts, spread them in a single layer on trays or screens in a shady or partially shady location with good air circulation. Cover them with netting or an additional screen to foil birds. Stir the nuts daily and cover them completely if rain threatens.

Crack open a few nuts every few days to check for dryness. The kernels inside should be crisp, not rubbery. In late summer and fall, drying may take only three to four days. Pecans should be dried more slowly to prevent the hull from cracking. A drying temperature between 75 degrees and 85 degrees Fahrenheit is best.      

Properly dried nuts, shelled or unshelled, can be stored for up to a year at 32 to 45 degrees F. A typical home refrigerator is between 38 to 45 degrees. Most home freezers are around 32 degrees. Chestnuts still in their shells will keep only about a month in the refrigerator.

For more detailed information, consult the following publication: “Harvesting and Storing Your Home Orchard's Nut Crop: Almonds, Walnuts, Pecans, Pistachios and Chestnuts” (UC ANR Publication No. 8005). You can download this document at no charge from anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/ or get it from the Napa County Master Gardeners office.

Napa County Master Gardeners (cenapa.ucdavis.edu) answer gardening questions Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 253-4221, or toll-free at 877-279-3065.

Many gardeners think of winter gardens as desolate and bare. With some good plant choices, you can create a garden that is beautiful and colorful even in the dormant season.

Planting trees and shrubs with interesting shape, bark or decorative fruit in winter can create a colorful and structurally interesting cold-weather garden.

Trees that retain fruit into winter can also provide food for birds, beneficial insects and other wildlife. These creatures will provide you with some winter entertainment, too.

Some of my favorite trees with attractive fall and winter fruit include pomegranates (Punica granatum), persimmons(Diospyros ssp.) and crab apples (Malus ssp.). All of them do well in Napa County. Any pomegranates that split or fruit that is too high for me to reach stays on the tree for birds to enjoy all winter. Hanging from bare branches, the fruits look like Christmas ornaments.

California native shrubs with colorful winter berries that are good for birds and wreaths include toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), with its clusters of small red berries, and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) which has white berries. You might also consider the eastern coralberry (Symphoricarpus orbiculatus), with white or pink berries.

Another California native tree with decorative winter fruit is the Western redbud (Cersis occidentalis). The fruits make a wonderful rustling sound in the wind, adding yet more pleasure to the winter garden. This drought-tolerant tree stays small and is thus a good choice for small yards. It produces magenta flowers in early spring, magenta pods in summer and yellow to red foliage in fall.

Look to trees and shrubs with fascinating bark or trunk shapes to provide interest in your deciduous garden. Trees with weeping or twisted branches can add a lot of drama. Some trees can be trained into intriguing shapes, while others have been expressly developed for branches that weep or twist.

I recently saw an example of a twisted black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) called 'Twisty Baby' with bright pink flowers. 'Twisty Baby' is Monrovia nursery's trademarked name for this cultivar. It is drought-tolerant like other locusts, but because it is a dwarf, only getting 8-10 feet tall it is suitable for a smaller garden .

Maples (Acer spp.), dogwoods (Cornus ssp.) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus ssp.) come in varieties with many different bark colors and textures. Some dogwoods are not deciduous, so choose carefully. The dogwood fruit is also good for wildlife.

For white-barked trees, many people often think of white birch (Betula pendula) or alder (Alnus rhombifolia or Alnus rubra). But these trees need well-drained soil and ample water. In our heavy clay soils, they are often not long lived. A better choice would be crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia ssp.) or lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora).

Our native manzanitas (Archtostaphylos ssp.) are among my favorite red-barked shrubs with interesting forms. They come in many sizes, from low-growing ground covers to large shrubs that work as small trees. They produce clusters of small, urn-shaped flowers in late winter through spring. Later, these flowers yield small, apple-like fruits that birds enjoy.

Manzanitas need good drainage but will tolerate poor soils. Once established, they require little watering, as infrequently as once a month or less.

Closely related to manzanitas are two other good garden shrubs or small trees with similar water needs, red bark and unusual red fruits: Arbutus 'Marina' and Arbutus unedo, also known as the strawberry tree.

Many trees have bark with an interesting texture. I grew up with a Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia), which has bark that falls off to leave a mottled pattern or "puzzle bark" on the trunk. These trees are resistant to Dutch elm disease and have long, arching branches, making them lovely for a patio. On the other hand, they have small leaves and produce many small fruits that can be messy.

Another tree with so-called “puzzle bark” is the sycamore (Platunas ssp.). Both the American sycamore (Platunas occidentalis) and the California sycamore (P. racemosa) are useful, attractive and appropriate trees for Napa Valley.

Melaleuca (Melaleuca ssp.), Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus) and the paperbark maple (Acer  griseus) are a few examples of trees with shredding or peeling bark. Melaleucas are native to Australia. They come in various shapes, sizes and flower colors. All are drought-tolerant and have interesting bark that peels off in papery layers. The smaller shrubby species are useful as screens. The flowers attract birds and bloom in a range of colors.

Catalina ironwood has reddish, scaly, shredding bark; narrow scalloped leaves; and showy clusters of creamy white flowers in early summer. It needs good drainage, so choose its location carefully or it will not thrive.

The paperbark maple has lovely red bark in winter, showy fruit in summer and bright red fall color.

Yvonne Rasmussen is a UC Master Gardener. UC Master Gardeners of Napa County (http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu) answer gardening questions Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon, at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143.

There are two types of strawberries: day-neutral varieties, also called ever bearers, and short-day types.

Ever-bearing plants are not affected by day length and have their highest production from spring through fall. Short-day types produce from fall through early spring when days are shorter. In our area, ever bearers are generally considered synonymous with day neutrals.

Your strawberry plants will need at least eight hours of full sun each day to produce well. Strawberries grow best in loamy or sandy soils. Before planting, prepare the soil by incorporating two to three inches of compost or other organic matter to a depth of at least 12 inches. Organic matter improves nutrient availability as well as the soil's structure and water-holding capacity.

Dig in some balanced fertilizer as well. Strawberries may still need to be fed several times during the growing season. Poor vigor or light green leaves tell you that it's time to fertilize. Heavy clay soil hampers strawberry growth and vigor and encourages disease, but you can succeed with clay soil if it is well drained. If possible, plant strawberries in raised beds to improve soil drainage and aeration.

When planting, remove any dead leaves, spread the roots out in the planting hole, and firm the soil around the plant. The crown of the plant — the area between the roots and the leaf stems — should be even with or slightly above ground level. Water the transplants well. Strawberry plants have shallow roots and need to be kept moist during the growing season. Use drip irrigation to keep moisture away from the fruit, minimizing fruit rot. Strawberries don't compete well with weeds, so be a vigilant weeder to extend the life of your beds.

Think about your strawberry bed as a temporary structure. Relocate plants after three to five years to prevent buildup of soil-borne pathogens. Avoid planting them in areas where you have recently grown other members of the Solanaceae family, such as peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and okra. They are all subject to the same soil-borne diseases.

Napa County Master Gardeners recently completed a year-long field trial of three markedly different strawberry varieties. We grew two day-neutral varieties, Albion and Quinault, and one short-day variety, Sequoia. Trial participants planted bare-root seedlings in January. Some gardeners planted in containers, which work well because of the plants' small root systems.

Following common practice, we removed runners the first year to strengthen the mother plants. Some gardeners also removed the first flush of blossoms and consequently harvested a meager amount of Sequoia berries, if any. Most of us used straw mulch to retain soil moisture and keep fruit off the ground, away from earwigs, sow bugs, snails and slugs.

Birds pecking at ripe fruit were among the most annoying pests; some gardeners used netting to control them.

Fruit production varied. The Sequoia plants produced some huge, sweet berries but finished production before hot weather began, leaving us with the impression that its growing season was too short.

 The Quinault plants yielded smaller, very soft fruit that needed to be eaten almost immediately. A few growers complained about having to throw away so many Quinault berries because they were too soft.

Albion berries were by far the best producers, yielding large, sweet, conical fruit on upright stems. Currently, the Albion is one of the most popular strawberry varieties in California. It was developed at the UC Davis and introduced only a few years ago. Photo of some of our harvest of Albion strawberries grown at our demonstration garden. 

Basket of Albion strawberries harvested at the Demonstration Garden at Connolly Ranch

Our group kept yield records through Oct. 31. However, several gardeners, as well as their children and grandchildren, succumbed to temptation and ate some of the juicy crop before it had a chance to be weighed.

Consequently, our results are not rigorously scientific.

Roughly speaking, Albion berries accounted for 67 percent of the total yield, Quinault berries 25 percent and Sequoia berries 8 percent. Most of the participants intend to keep their plants going for another year.

For more information on growing strawberries and strawberry pest information see the UC integrated Pest Management website http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/strawberries.html

Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu) are available to answer gardening questions Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, at the UC Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Ave., Suite 4, Napa, 253-4221.