This month's Spotlight Master Gardener, Valerie Kimmel-Oliva had a personal goal to complete three UCCE programs in one year which she did (fall to spring 2017-2018). She is a UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) San Bernardino County Master Gardener, a Master Food Preserver and a UC California Naturalist! Completing all three programs helped her achieve a better understanding of global environmental issues, desert ecosystems, sustainable gardening, plant care, and growing food.

Valerie has always wanted to learn more and volunteer at a larger scale. She volunteers where she thinks she can be most helpful. Her peers reach out to her if they think she might be interested in helping. Valerie said, “There are so many projects to help with. I just try to do what I can to make a difference.” She has supported the Master Gardener program in numerous ways. She has participated in the “Ask a Master Gardener Helpline”, distributed Master Gardener flyers and shared networking opportunities for agencies. One of the major projects she worked on was the restoration of the garden at the Victor Valley Museum in Apple Valley. The garden was restored and designed to ensure it was accessible and friendly to schools, families, and children. The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) also uses the garden to test techniques for gardening that emphasize water conservation.

Valerie has attended and participated in the "Agriculture in the Classroom" online conferences several times (a few with our very own UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener Coordinator, Maggie O'Neil!) The conference mission is to raise awareness and understanding of agriculture among California's educators and students. The concepts presented at the conference are helpful to Valerie in the classroom. She also shares resources from the conferences with her fellow teachers and interns to teach their own students.

Valerie has been a Master Gardener since 2017, but her interest in sustainable gardening extends back many years before. Her interest in sustainability started with learning about recycling programs. Her efforts in teaching kids about the environment just snowballed from there. With a strong belief that kids are our docents for the future, Valerie teaches them how to garden appropriately. Because of what they have learned in Valerie's classes, some started their own home gardens.

Valerie has been involved with school-site and community gardens for about fifteen years. While teaching special needs students from the inner city of Richmond, California, she took on the task of re-establishing the school's neglected garden. She later joined the board for a city community garden as the teacher representative. While in the Bay Area, she also trained in the Watershed Program.

Valerie told me, “There's wonderment in gardening. To stir that wonderment in children's eyes is part of the excitement in being a teacher,” She really loves her job, working with kids and gardening. She has combined all these passions in school-based programs to give her students the information they need to make better food choices and how to grow things. Working with the idea that there is a lot of resiliency in a garden, she teaches her students that it is okay to make mistakes and to use those mistakes to learn from and plan better for the future.

Valerie returned to the high desert in 2011. As a Special Education teacher in the Apple Valley Unified School District, she facilitated the school garden restoration at Desert Knolls Elementary School. Valerie and her students' hard work paid off in growing a wonderful garden of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. She believes that kids learn about science and math through their gardening experiences. Measuring a garden bed, figuring out how many plants to grow, amount of soil and water needed is required within the scope of hands-on science and math-based learning.

One of the most fun things the kids did was act as docents of the garden for a school Earth Day celebration. They had stations and gave tours of the garden and to talk about how they contributed to its success. Participating in activities made the event more relatable to the kids. When kids have learned enough information to teach others, Valerie knows that they understand the concept.

There are a lot of socio-economically disadvantaged children living in the desert communities where Valerie teaches. She teaches students who may not have adequate nutrition and all the other comorbid things that go with that. When a child grows something, he or she gets an incredible feeling of, I got something from basically nothing. Valerie believes that is a real moment of surprise for children (and for adults too.)

Valerie has worked hard to facilitate recycling practices at the schools she has taught. In 2016, Desert Knolls Elementary School was also selected as the School of the Year for Recycling at the annual Recycling and Recovery State Convention and won the Town of Apple Valley “Green Award” that same year. "It was quite an honor, as we have been establishing our program through sustainable practices. I learned many of the practices after attending MEEC-Mojave Environmental Consortium-sponsored workshops. Composting, energy, and gardens in every classroom, to name a few," Valerie said about receiving the award on behalf of the school and her students' hard work.

Valerie taught the district STEP program, grades 1-6, and was an advisor for the GATE after-school programs. She volunteered her time to take students on field trips to support service-learning and STEM activities. MEEC has provided transportation services funding for her to take students on field trips to organic farms and recycling recovery enters. She has taken students to the YELC-Youth Environmental Leadership Conference, the Showcase event, and the Annual Solar Oven Competition. She has had winning teams for several years in solar oven competitions.

In 2016, she was honored to be selected by the MEEC board as the MEEC-Mojave Environmental Education Consortium Teacher of the Year in recognition of her dedication and hard work in fostering environmental awareness in the classroom. Valerie said, “It was a turning point in my professional career and personal development!”

Valerie's dedication leads her to continue her students' environmental learning by virtual outreach. In her Google Classroom, she has a Garden Corner where she shares information with her students and their families about gardening activities that they can do at home. She shares California Teachers Agriculture in the Classroom Program fruits and vegetable cards with her students. She is working on indoor garden activities that she can take back to her classroom to share with her students and their families when COVID restrictions are lifted. She has an herb garden kit with lights and plans to get a hydroponics kit with Betta fish. She had started a similar project at Yucca Loma Elementary School with her K-2 class before in-class instruction temporarily ceased.

Being a Master Gardener has helped Valerie expand her gardening knowledge and interests. She loves everything about gardening from pest control to the importance of trees. One of her favorite gardening activities is experimenting with methods to grow new things in the desert. She likes to grow flowers from bulbs. For the past six years has been experimenting with different types of bulbs to see which ones grow best in the desert. The most unusual thing she has grown is Loofahs. She grew so many that she and her daughter packaged them in spa gift baskets to give to friends.

She planted several types of fruit trees and three grape vines in her home garden this year. Most recently she has been experimenting with propagating fig trees. Most of all, she enjoys teaching her family how to harvest home-grown foods. Being a passionate gardener, she enjoys working in the soil, and with the soul of a true gardener, she prefers to get her bare hands in the soil.

Valerie said, “The Master Gardener program is a great community to learn, network, volunteer, and share meaningful experiences with people who have common interests. The learning is ongoing, and everyone comes with different levels of expertise or strengths. It is a great way to help share what you learn and do with others in your community.”

UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardeners are proud of Valerie Kimmel-Oliva's commitment to promoting environmental awareness and positive change within schools and communities. We celebrate her many successes and are honored to have her as a member of our community!

 

 

It feels like spring is here! It might not stay, as we sometimes have a few false starts here in So Cal, but the birds are singing, the trees are sending out blooms and summer veggies are getting seeded and about ready to be transplanted. Things always seem so much easier in the garden in the spring.  The weather is mostly on our side, with a few hot or cold days, but usually nothing really extreme. We have the hope of periodic rain to help our plants along so we are not alone in watering, getting a little help from nature. While many pests that have slowed down in the cooler months are just emerging and starting planning their takeovers in our garden, optimism is high!  We have grand plans for successful vegetable and herb gardens.

Here are a few tips to help turn your grand plans into successful gardens:

1)      Keep it reasonable (or don't, just be prepared):  In the spring, with weather on our side and soooo many seeds coming in one packet, it's easy to get a garden going that might be bigger than you want to maintain in the summer.  Big expansive gardens can be great! Just make sure that for each crop you plant, you think about the water, shade, space, and protection the plants will need in the summer, and what to do with any extra produce! 

2)      Keep your garden close to a water source: Be sure your garden is set up so you have easy access to water. While it might not need very much supplemental water now, inconsistent watering can cause fruit and veggie bitterness and fruit split. Make sure you plan ahead to supply water through an irrigation system or with a hose or, for smaller gardens, a watering can, keeping in mind that your plants can need about three times the water in the heat of summer than in early spring.

3)      Check early and often for pests and diseases: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a pest management approach that combines several “best practices” with the use of pesticides as a last resort. These practices include: Proper identification of your pest (and the damage they can cause); early monitoring and detection before populations or disease are widespread; and treatment that is based on your pest or diseases life cycle and behavior to get a treatment that is effective and also reduces harm to non-target animals and plants. When IPM techniques are used, many problems in your landscape and garden can be avoided before harmful chemicals are needed.  In practical terms: check for things like aphids, earwigs and blight often so that you can catch the infestation early and only need to treat or manage a small outbreak; make sure when you see a bug that it was the bug that actually did the damage to your plant, or find out if it's a pest that doesn't cause much harm and can be left alone. (It may actually be a beneficial insect since there are more of those in our gardens than actual insect pests.) If you see a weed, pull it out before it becomes a huge pest in your garden.  Keeping your plants weed free keeps them from competing with other plants for nutrients and water, and keeping weeds out early helps keep them from taking over your yard!

4)      A great resource for all things IPM is: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.homegarden.html

Another great resource is the UC IPM diagnostic tool where you can go to trouble shoot your pest problems: https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu  Don't forget that our Master Gardener helpline is also here to help you trouble shoot all of your pest problems too!

5)      Use “best practices” when caring for your plants:  Part of a successful integrated pest management strategy is to keep your plants healthy and well cared for. Just like when we exercise, eat right and get enough water and rest to avoid getting sick, we can do the same for our plants. Start by adding generous amounts of organic matter (compost is great!) into your garden soil, mixing it at least 6 inches deep for non-root crops and a foot or deeper for potatoes, carrots, and other root crops. Overwatering is one of the main causes of mature plant failure and underwatering is one of the major causes of newly established plant failures (including recently planted vegetable seeds and transplants).  Both overwatering and underwatering put extra stress on plants and makes them vulnerable to pests. Also, apply the right amount of fertilizer.  Both too little and too much impact the health and production of vegetables. Applying mulch on top of the soil around your vegetables is another best practice that can buffer soil temperatures and keep spring weeds from germinating in your garden.   

6)      Keep an open mind and learn from your struggles!  Gardening can be so rewarding when you sit down to eat your first summer tomato (if it even makes it into the house) or can be so frustrating when you go to pick your first tomato and you find it's hollowed out on the back side!! Arggggg!  It's important to remember that gardening is a journey not a destination and all of the best gardeners will tell you they learned more from their failures than their successes.  When things aren't going right in your garden, don't be shy to reach out to your local Master Gardener helpline and let us help you (mgsanbern@ucanr.edu)!  The sooner you reach out to us to have us help troubleshoot your challenges, the more likely it is that the problem can be resolved without total loss of your plant or crop…..and don't be shy, the only silly question is the one you don't ask, and the Master Gardeners loooove a gardening mystery or challenge!

Right plant, right place, right time:  That is what we learn early when we go through our Master Gardener training program to become volunteers.  The right plant (meaning it's well suited for your climate and the microclimate that you are planting it in at your house) put in the right place (given the right amount of sun or shade as needed, placed in a soil that it is suited for, placed in a place where it can grow to the height it needs, etc.) and planted at the right time (e.g. warm vs. cool season veggies) will be a plant that is healthy and productive!

With these tips, and regular “check in's” with your garden, you are well on your way to taking your spring dreams into summer success.

If you need more help with your vegetable garden, check out our ABC's of School and Community Garden Workshop on March 13^th where we will go over our new veggie guide: From Asparagus to Zucchini for all the San Bernardino County climates!  Register here for this free Zoom class: http://ucanr.edu/u.cfm?id=265

Remember that the Master Gardeners are here to support you along the way with free online gardening classes, our monthly “Ask a Master Gardener” time, and our helpline!

 

Interested in developing or participating in the school and community food garden movement? Want to learn more about the benefits of these gardens and how to get started?  Or find gardens already up and running to link to? What about accessing our new UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) San Bernardino County ‘From Asparagus to Zucchini Guide' which includes tips for growing bumper crops of nutritious vegetables in all parts of San Bernardino County.  You're in luck!  Register today for the ‘ABC's of School and Community Garden' workshop via Zoom on Saturday, March 13, from 9am – 4pm: http://ucanr.edu/u.cfm?id=265

The ‘ABC's of School and  Community Gardens' workshop will highlight how to create and sustain successful school and community gardens, with presentations by UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardeners and other horticulturists from all geographical areas of the county. Learn from experienced gardeners what works and what doesn't.  Resources from the Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver volunteer programs will be shared and you will be able to connect with local partners who are here to support your success. This is a participatory workshop!  We will have breakout sessions where you can share your experiences and learn from others involved in school and community gardens in all areas of the county from the valleys (Montclair to Yucaipa and Chino Hills to Rancho Cucamonga and Highland!) as well as mountain and high desert regions. 

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With our “ABC's of School and Community Garden” workshop and our local growing guide in mind, and spring almost here I can hardly contain my excitement to get outdoors and get into the garden!  In most parts of Southern California we can garden year round, growing delicious and nutritious cool season vegetables in the winter and great fruits and vegetables in the summer. But spring is still a special time of year, where the sky's the limit on what we can grow and plant and everything outside seems new and fresh!  Each year many home gardeners start out with excitement and with a little planning and support your excitement can turn into success!  In addition to our regular free online classes we offer each month, we will be offering extra classes to help you get your summer growing off to a great start!  We are hosting several free online workshops on transplanting and seed starting, giving you tips on soil and seed/plant selection, and helping you get your soil just right to produce a bumper crop. Also, don't forget we will be there to troubleshoot your seed and transplant challenges with you through our “Ask a Master Gardener” times and email and telephone helpline, being sure to also provide support for those gardening and landscaping in the deserts and mountains, where timing and conditions make growing a little different than in the valley.  We are now offering several of our classes in Spanish so that we can continue to support our diverse community of gardeners.  Check out our online classes at http://mgsb.ucanr.edu/, and reach out to our San Bernardino County Master Gardener Helpline with all of your growing questions by phone: 909-387-2182 or email: mgsanbern@ucanr.edu

Lynn Brown-Summers and Tim Summers are a dynamic husband-and-wife team. Their differing strengths have made them an inspiring team in serving their local community wherever they are needed. UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) San Bernardino County Master Gardeners since January 2019 (Lynn) and July 2017 (Tim) and UCCE Master Food Preservers (since 2017), they enjoy spending time together gardening and preserving their own food.

Lynn's strength is to connect with like-minded individuals to accomplish mutual goals. She has the mind, heart, and soul of an activist, which comes as no surprise since most of her family members are involved in public service, politics, and publishing. Her mother, Cheryl Brown, is a former Assemblywoman of the 47^th District and current California State Commissioner on Aging who has devoted most of her life to public service. In 1980, Lynn's father and mother founded Brown Publishing Company to produce Black Voice News. This weekly newspaper focuses on local news in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Lynn knows how to “make things happen” and the right people to help in that effort. As Tim says, “My wife is one of those forces of nature. Tell her what, you point her in the direction, and she will get it done.” A self-proclaimed “gardening nerd," Tim is the “nuts and bolts' implementation force of the team. He enjoys the hands-on part of their collaboration, and it shows through his gardening. Together, they are unstoppable in their goal to make the world better through the Master Gardeners' mission, “To extend research-based knowledge and information on home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices to the residents of California.”

Learning the researched-based approach to sustainable gardening taught in the Master Gardener program has helped Lynn and Tim fulfill their strong desire to help others. They believe that the program provides supportive credibility to their Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver presentations. It gives them a greater depth of knowledge and background of information to pull accurate and useful information. Lynn and Tim believe that research-based knowledge is especially critical for integrated pest management (IPM). They took a UC ANR IPM class a few years ago. They recommended that anyone interested take one of the online courses or workshops https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/master-gardeners/.

Tim and Lynn believe that society can be affected positively by teaching people how to grow and store their own food. Food insecurity is a problem throughout the world. One of their goals is to educate people regarding how they can have access to healthy food. There is a sufficient supply of food in the world to feed people. However, a lot of food is thrown away. As a society, we are accustomed to seeing food that perfect in appearance. Many foods thrown away are perfectly acceptable for consumption. Still, they may have some blemishes that we are not used to seeing in grocery stores. Encouraging people to understand that unattractive fruits and vegetables are not always bad and teaching them how to preserve them could make a difference in our society. They would like people to understand that these items are perfectly acceptable for food preservation and consumption. Doing this one thing could help make a difference in our society.

Before COVID restricted activities, Lynn and Tim were active in presenting Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver workshops at the Rialto Community Garden at 539 Acacia Avenue, Rialto. They are passionate about teaching people the safe way to preserve and store food they have grown.

They took the Master Food Preserver class together in 2017 to teach people how to become more self-sufficient. The course helped Lynn grow in the way she preserved and canned foods. She grewup preserving and canning, but techniques have changed since she learned from her grandmother. When teaching a gardening class, they incorporate concepts and techniques for food preservation. This includes fermenting (pickles), preserving (jams, jellies), pressure canning (just about anything including chicken), dehydrating (fruit), and drying (spices, okra).

Lynn and Tim are involved in so many projects that I am amazed at how they find the time and energy to keep “all the balls they are juggling in the air.” They are currently finishing a new (second) Rialto Community Garden at 150 Palm Avenue opposite City Hall. They are proud that they were asked by the City of Rialto to work on the garden for the past two years from start to finish. They served as the UCCE Master Gardener experts for the project, helping develop and implement a garden plan. They represented the community garden project as advisors, attending city planning meetings and spoke at city council meetings regarding the project.

They have developed a curriculum for workshops held at the garden when COVID restrictions are lifted. They are excited to have a garden plot where they will conduct monthly gardening workshops. Their goal is to get relevant gardening information to the local community and encourage more people to become involved in gardening. They want people who may not have sufficient space for a garden to know that there is a place for them to learn about starting their own garden.

They are also working with the Mayor of Rialto to start a seed bank there. There is a beautiful old adobe building at the Bud Bender Park that Lynn and Tim think would be a perfect spot to start a seed bank. The early 19th-century structure is the oldest building still standing in Rialto. It has been used for many purposes over the years. The internal temperature of the adobe structure is perfect for storing seeds. The Mayor would like to use it for the seed bank, but it needs some repair work. The project is currently in the planning stage “on paper." The city likes the idea and is reviewing the budget for available funds. Lynn and Tim don't easily give up, so if the adobe site doesn't work out, they will find another location for a Rialto seed bank. It may be at the community garden at Bud Bender Park if the idea to use the adobe structure doesn't work out.

Lynn and Tim have participated in the City of Rialto's annual Civic Day for four years. Their favorite activity at the event is teaching Rialto Unified School District third grade students on their annual field trip how to grow vegetables. Lynn and Tim provide all the supplies for the project, so each student can take a seed planted in the soil home with them. Last year Lynn and Tim introduced the students to some of the basic concepts of designing a garden. They provided a large roll of paper for all the students to draw their garden designs. Afterward, Lynn and Tim presented the students' plan to the Rialto School Board and the Rialto City Council to foster awareness of teaching children that gardening is important and fun.

For three years, Lynn has worked with the San Bernardino Public Library and the American Girl project to teach girls who participated about some of the historical characters who had victory gardens. Lynn and her mother on the San Bernardino Library Board were planning a fundraiser for the library. They weren't sure what they would do. Lynn's sister, who serves on the Irvine Foundation Board, told them about another organization that had successfully done an American Girl fundraiser.

Lynn thought having an American Girl Victory Garden workshop would be fun and educational for young girls and attendees to learn about gardening. Stations were set up where the girls made paper, planted seeds, and made a berry jam. The UCCE San Bernardino County Master Food Preservers made food to sample, such as finger sandwiches, cakes, cookies, and other goodies from the American Girl cookbook.

Several people donated American Girl dolls and books to the San Bernardino Public Library. Any of the children who were not able to afford the American Doll event could check a doll and book out of the library and journal their thoughts before returning the library items.

A tea was held for the girls attending the first year. During the tea, each of the girls had an American Girl doll who had historically had a garden sit with them. The girls learned about historical characters like Kit, Addy, and Kaya. The families of the latter all grew and prepared their own food to survive. Kit Kittredge is an American Girl Doll whose family loses their comfortable life during the Great Depression. They had a victory garden, a vegetable stand and made their own preserves. Addy Walker is an American Girl doll who escaped slavery on a plantation in the 1860s. Addy helped on her family's gardens, where they grew all their own food. Kaya'aton'my (Kaya) is a Native American Girl doll. While the men of the tribe were away hunting, the women gathered, dried and prepared food. At the end of the event, one of the girls even won an American Girl doll!

The American Girl Victory Garden workshop that Lynn organizes each year is a well-attended, popular event. The organizers were sad they were not able to hold a workshop this year due to COVID restrictions. However, everyone is looking forward to having another workshop as soon as possible.

Lynn and Tim are highly skilled at helping people feel comfortable to think outside the box to come up with creative gardening solutions. They recently discussed how property at the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in San Bernardino can be converted to a garden with a minister's alliance group. The AME Church does a lot of outreach on self-sufficiency, sustainability, and how to give back to the community. Having their own garden would be a promising avenue for them to sell their product and help the community.

The first step is to help them develop a design concept for the designated area that takes water constraints at the property into consideration and choose the best plants for their needs. They have asked the alliance group to consider planting berries or grapes. Lynn and Tim would also like to teach them how to preserve food and make jams and jellies. Knowing Lynn and Tim, they will make the garden a success!

Like many UCCE Master Gardeners, Tim and Lynn have a life-long love of gardening. Tim grew up loving horticulture as a child and has been gardening for over 50 years. As a young adult, he had his own landscape company. Lynn developed a love of growing her own food and canning from her grandparents in North Carolina, who had 10 acres of land. Together, her grandparents raised pigs, chickens, geese and grew and preserved all their own vegetables and fruits.

I was so inspired by Lynn and Tim, their strong partnership, and their drive and passion for teaching the world how food insecurity can be alleviated. They were such an exciting and engaging couple that I could have spent many more hours chatting with them. UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardeners and Master Food Preservers are thankful to Lynn and Tim for their dedication and support. They are an inspiration to us all!