The first week of December is California Healthy Soils Week. To help "celebrate" the occasion, I was asked to give a lecture on some tips to keep your garden soil healthy. If you're the type that likes to watch videos, then you can watch the recording. (It's about 1 hour, including the questions at the end.)

If you're like me and like to get the short, bullet-point version, here it is.

Dustin's Healthy Soil Tips:

• Know your native soil (Try this link!)
• Make permanent paths
• Treat beds like beds: don't stand or walk in them and keep them covered—with mulch
• Add organic materials like compost
• Rotate crops; be sure to include cover crops
• Till gently; here's an article to learn more

Originally published on the Backyard Gardener blog (Dec. 16, 2020): 
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=44434

Learn and celebrate Healthy Soils Week with the UC Master Gardener Program and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Nov. 30 – Dec. 4! Healthy Soils week is full of virtual activities, at-home projects, and LIVE talks to join.  Growing and supporting soil health is something all of us can contribute to whether we have a full landscape to work in, a small patio, or a community garden plot. 

Why Healthy Soil?

Soil quality is critical to healthy plants, crops and is a vital part of our living ecosystem. Soil is alive with organisms that slowly grow or change depending on what is added or used.  Soil health, much like our own, is gradually improved over time so focusing on its constant improvement helps sustainability. Adding certain practices into your gardening routine, such as incorporating organic matter, can improve soil health and quality.

Tips to Keep your Garden Soil Healthy, LIVE on Dec. 3

The UC Master Gardener Program will celebrate healthy soils week by hosting a free LIVE talk on Tips to Keep your Garden Soil Healthy. No registration is required. The discussion will be live-streamed to Facebook and YouTube on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 10 am.

Guest speaker, Dustin Blakey, will be breaking down what gardeners can do to support healthy soil for years to come. LIVE talks are an authentic and interactive way to interact with our audience in real-time. Share the Facebook and YouTube Live opportunity on your social media and tune in to the UC Master Gardener Program LIVE broadcast! In the comments section, let us know what topics or questions you would like answered on Thursday, Dec. 3 or ideas for future LIVE topics.

The event will be recorded and available for later viewing for those who can't make it. Attention UC Master Gardener Volunteers: Whether you join LIVE or watch the recording, be sure to record your continuing education hours in the Volunteer Management System.

Other Events and Activities

California Department of Food and Agriculture and more than 20 partners have teamed up highlighting healthy soils on the farm and at home.  Find a full list of partners participating in healthy soils week and a calendar of this year's online activities at www.cdfa.ca.gov/healthysoilsweek/.

Ask your local UC Master Gardener

For more gardening help and local county resources, click here to Find a Program. You will be redirected to your local county website and contact information. UC Master Gardener volunteers, staff, and our extended community's health and safety is our number one priority. Many UC Cooperative Extension offices are offering only phone and virtual services but are here to help, be sure to check your local program for resources. Thank you for your understanding.

Every three years, we look forward to connecting UC Master Gardener volunteers, staff, academics, and friends to network, learn, and share their projects and stories. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, all large-gatherings have not been possible to help slow the spread of the virus. After much thought, we have decided to postpone the triennial UC Master Gardener Conference from its originally planned 2020 dates to 2023.

The decision to further postpone the conference date was made after a careful review of the resort contract, current state and federal rules for group sizes, UC travel restrictions, and restricted activities related to COVID-19. The health and well-being of our speakers, staff, and UC Master Gardener volunteers is our top priority.

While we are sad we cannot meet in person in the upcoming year, the good news is that we were able to reschedule the conference at the same beautiful location, the Granlibakken Resort in Lake Tahoe, Calif. Oct. 2 – Oct. 6, 2023. 

Mini-Conference

While postponing meeting in person was a tough decision, it has opened the doors to other virtual learning opportunities. This year, the statewide office hosted an online mini-conference, held on Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2020. The mini-conference highlighted Search for Excellence winners, Gardeners with Heart nominees, and covered several home gardening topics as well as home food preservation. The mini-conference was well received by volunteers and the public at large. Although not as robust as a full in-person conference, this proved to be a great alternative that supported both learning and engagement. 

Looking forward

With the conference rescheduled, efforts can now shift to more emergent online training needs and projects to support new UC Master Gardener trainings and continuing education. We thank you for your support as we all work through this together! We are incredibly grateful for the understanding of UC Master Gardener volunteers, coordinators, advisors, and county directors as we continue to work hard to ensure that our future event is met with the same enthusiasm and learning opportunities as previous conferences.

Until 2023, we look forward to continuing to provide live and recorded training opportunities for UC Master Gardener volunteers and the public. Follow us on social media for live event notifications and check out our library of recorded webinars online.  

Each year, UC Master Gardener program coordinators from across the state gather together to engage in professional development, share successes, troubleshoot challenges, and connect with UC ANR resources to improve program delivery. Originally intended to be an in-person session the day before the triennial UC Master Gardener Program statewide conference in Lake Tahoe, the 2020 meeting took place via Zoom on Monday, Sept. 27, 2020.

UC Master Gardener Program staff, academics, and lead volunteers met Monday, September 28 via Zoom to share best practices and contribute to program development.

The gathering's core themes included diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as best practices for remote and/or virtual garden education and program administration.

Why we meet and the current gardening climate
Statewide program director, Missy Gable, began the annual coordinator meeting by providing a comment on program outlook for the 2020-21 year. Gable noted the increased interest in gardening content, citing that Google searches for gardening related terms increased dramatically during the pandemic period. A bit closer to home, she shared that submissions of the ‘Become a UC Master Gardener' interest form have risen by nearly 50% while counties have reported a huge surge in attendance at online workshops and events. She also highlighted the tremendous creativity and innovation of volunteers and program personnel alike, qualities that allow the UC Master Gardener Program to share gardening content in new and inclusive ways.

While 2020 has brought many challenges, the field of home gardening education is thriving. Engines such as Google report dramatic increases in gardening-related searches (as the slide above indicates).

Know someone who would like to become a UC Master Gardener? Click here to reach our 'Become a UC Master Gardener' form. Click here to find contact information for local, county-based program.

Increasing diversity in the UC Master Gardener Program
The 2020 annual coordinator meeting keynote was delivered by Dr. Maria de la Fuente, county director (UCCE Monterey) farm advisor and UC Master Gardener advisor (UCCE Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties). Dr. de la Fuente is a longtime UC Master Gardener advisor, first with UCCE Santa Clara and currently with UCCE in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.

Maria's presentation was grounded in social psychology research but peppered with personal anecdotes related to inclusion leadership. De la Fuente highlighted the work of two Dutch scholars and father-son duo, Geert Hofstede and Gert Hofstede, who advanced a theory of national culture based on factors such as individualism versus collectivism as well as long-term orientation versus short term orientation. She suggested that understanding dimensions of national culture may help the UC Master Gardener Program, and UC ANR more broadly, connect with and serve all Californians including those from immigrant communities.

Dr. Maria de la Fuente's presentation 'Increasing Diversity in the UC Master Gardener Program' included recommendations of DEI informed leadership and organizational development. Pictured here is Juana Bordas' Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.

Inclusive volunteer selection
Like any hiring or recruitment process, the volunteer selection process can be a space where bias, stereotype, and preferentialism can occur. The UC Master Gardener Program is engaged in a process of attempting to reduce selection biases, ensuring that all prospective volunteers receive appropriate and equitable treatment.

Last August, the UC Master Gardener Program offered a webinar for program coordinators focused on inclusive volunteer selection. In this webinar, attendees explored best practices for improving volunteer selection materials such as program applications, volunteer interview questions, and volunteer position descriptions. The 2020 annual meeting built on this important foundational work. Coordinators, in breakout rooms, provided feedback and directly edited template applications, interview questions, and positions descriptions to update with best practices in volunteer selection. These edits will be reviewed by the UC Master Gardener Program statewide team, advisory committee and UC ANR colleagues with interest in and expertise around volunteer engagement and DEI.

Click here to view the August 2020 Inclusive Volunteer Selection Brown Bag Webinar via YouTube. Click here to view the UC Master Gardener Program statewide blog post on implicit bias and related continuing education resources.

Gardeners with Heart
During the annual coordinator meeting, coordinators had the opportunity to preview a special video featuring photos and quotes from/about special volunteers. These volunteers, Gardeners with Heart, were nominated by coordinators during National Volunteer Week in April 2020. Gardeners with Heart, use creativity, strategic thinking, passion for program mission, and commitment to diversity to improve our program delivery.

Click here to view a recording of the Gardeners with Heart video premiere at the 2020 Virtual Mini-Conference. Click here to view and share the Gardeners with Heart slideshow.

Coordinator-led discussions
Anne Schellman, program coordinator in Stanislaus County, Randy Musser, program coordinator in Orange County, and Maggie O'Neill, program coordinator in San Bernardino hosted coordinator-led discussions about demonstration gardens and training in the COVID-19 era. In these discussion sessions, program coordinators and leadership shared suggestions about demonstration garden infrastructure, remote mentoring strategies for trainees and new volunteers, and tech innovations for program delivery.

Anne Schellman, program coordinator in Stanislaus, utilized Zoom annotation tools to create real-time world clouds in response to her prompts about demonstration garden best practices. This slide asks respondents to share what kinds of activities occur in their demo gardens.

Click here to learn about the Zoom annotation tools used during Anne Schellman's demonstration garden session.

Many thanks to all of the UC Master Gardener program coordinators, advisors, county directors, and lead volunteers who attended the 2020 annual meeting and special appreciation to our presenters and discussion facilitators.

A note on the annual meeting audience

The UC Master Gardener Program Coordinator Annual Meeting designed for UC Master Gardener program coordinators. We acknowledge, however, that some counties operate without paid staff. In these cases, representative UC Master Gardener volunteers who are involved in program management are invited to attend with approval from their environmental horticulture advisor (or similar) and/or county director. Academics with UC Master Gardener Program authority are welcome, however, the focus of this meeting is on supporting and celebrating program coordinators.