Standing in the usually snow-packed Sierra Nevada Mountains, Gov. Jerry Brown called for a mandatory reduction of water use across California the beginning of this month. For the first time in the state a required water conservation action has been called, shedding light on the severity of California's drought conditions.

At the direction of Gov. Brown the State Water Resources Control Board will require local water districts to impose a 25 percent water restrictions on all resident's water use.

“People should realize we are in a new era,” Brown said. “The idea of your nice little green grass that gets water every day, that's going to be a thing of the past.”

These new mandatory restrictions have left many home gardeners to wonder what this means for their home landscape.

Reducing Water Use in the Garden

According to The California Garden Web, an informational website about gardening hosted by the UC Master Gardener Program, water use in the home landscape can often be easily reduced by 20 to 40 percent because overwatering is a common mistake by homeowners. Slowly start to reduce water supplied to plants over the course of a few weeks, giving the plants time to adapt to the change.

It is important for residents to remember to not introduce new plants to your landscape during a severe drought. Even California native plants aren't drought-tolerant until they become well established. When water restrictions are lifted and new plants can be introduced, select drought-tolerant varieties appropriate for your climate zone. 

Planting in the fall as opposed to the spring allows plants to become established by winter rains. Residents should prioritize water use in their landscape, saving established trees and large shrubs first because they are typically more expensive to replace and require years to mature.

The lawn should be given a low water priority. As Brown stated during his address, “nice little green grass that gets water every day, that's going to be a thing of the past.” The lawn is often underused and typically mismanaged with overwatering in the home landscape. Lawn can easily be reestablished over a short period of time, or replaced with ground covers, mulches or hardscapes. If saving a lawn is a must, remember to mow your lawn higher during very warm weather and only water at night between 9 pm and 6 am.

UC Master Gardener Program Offers Help

The UC Master Gardener Program has volunteers across the state, trained by University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), available to answer the public's questions about how to save established trees, plants and reduce water use in their yards.

Many of the program's 50 county-based locations offer free to the public hotline services, home irrigation analysis and workshops for the public that are aimed at helping California's residents reduce their water use. Contact a local UC Master Gardener Program for more water saving information and resources.

Trusted Resources

The new second edition of the California Master Gardener Handbook from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) is a great resource for drought tips and home landscape water conservation methods. With an extensive chapter dedicated to water conservation methods, best practices for irrigation, plant selection, and tips for protecting water quality in urban landscapes.

Another great option is to use the irrigation worksheet for homeowners that was recently developed by Dr. Loren Oki, CE Specialist, Landscape Horticulture with UC ANR and UC Davis. The worksheet is designed to calculate an irrigation schedule for a landscape zone for one calendar year.

 

The highly anticipated 2nd Edition - California Master Gardener Handbook has arrived and is available online for purchase to the public. The California Master Gardener Handbook has been the premiere choice for gardening enthusiasts on the West Coast since it was first published in 2002.

The trusted California Master Gardener handbook is a valuable resource that is packed with research-based information and more than 21 in-depth home horticulture topics. The handbook offers advice on home vegetable gardening, plant propagation, landscape design, insects, water management, weeds and much much more!

What's new inside?

The completely redesigned handbook has updated tables, graphics and color photos throughout. Technical information has been updated by University and industry experts and the handbook is more reader-friendly with a reorganized flow of information.

“The second edition handbook has been a true labor of lots of hard work and dedication and the result shows! The handbook includes many updates and expanded coverage of important topics of interest to UC Master Gardeners and avid backyard gardeners as well. The Water Management chapter include timely topics such as use of graywater and more coverage of edibles than the first edition. Controlling Garden Pests Safely, Landscape and Garden Design, Poisonous Plants and other chapters have been updated and expanded to reflect accurate information pertinent to the needs of today's environmentally-conscientious gardeners.” - Janet Hartin, Environmental Horticulture Advisor, San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties and UC ANR Environmental Horticulture Associate Editor 

New content was added on important topics including invasive plant species and designing and maintaining landscapes for fire protection. The poisonous plants chapter was completely rewritten by Judy Alsop, the former Director of the Calif. Poison Control Center, and there is an expanded chapter on water management in the home landscape.

How to order

“We received our new handbooks yesterday and believe me, they are well worth the wait--a beautiful publication that we can all be extremely proud to have as our primary educational resource. Congratulations and thanks to everyone at UC ANR who worked on updating this truly impressive publication!!” - Linda Baity, Program Coordinator, Santa Clara County

If you are a currently certified UC Master Gardener volunteer check with your local program coordinator about purchasing the new publication. All active UC Master Gardeners receive a 40 percent discount on the publication which retails for $37 to the public. Members of the public can order a copy of the publication through a local UC Master Gardener Program or by using the UC ANR online catalog.

Do you already have a copy of the new handbook? We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section below!

 

With more than 650 participants, including 48 break-out sessions and four keynote speakers there was a wealth of knowledge and experience available to all that attended the triennial 2014 UC Master Gardener Conference.

Welcome & keynotes

To kick-off the conference internationally acclaimed speaker and park ranger, Shelton Johnson, inspired the crowd during his welcome to Mariposa and Yosemite introduction. Johnson is a supporter for exposing minorities to National Parks and connecting them back to the natural world. He has also dedicated a majority of his work around the history of the Buffalo Soldiers and their roles in National Parks during the early 1900s.  During his welcome speech Johnson embraced UC Master Gardeners as a passionate group who had an evident love of nature, soil and the earth.  

Two keynote speakers followed Johnson's inspirational welcome, Doug Tallamy a professor in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, and Alan McHughen a public sector educator, scientist and consumer advocate for UC Riverside. Tallamy, author of “Bringing Nature Home”, presented the importance of biodiversity in our ecosystems.

“Replacing half of the area that is now barren lawns with plants that are best at supporting food webs would create over 20 million acres of connectivity [nationally] and go a long way sustaining biodiversity in the future,” encourages Tallamy. 

The opening day's final keynote speaker, Alan McHughen, presented on what every UC Master Gardener should know about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). His presentation was focused around his research findings, published in “Pandora's Picnic Basket”. McHughen explained the basics of rDNA technology and how it is used in agriculture and horticulture.  

A magical night at Tenaya

Attendees experienced a “Magical Night at Tenaya” presented by volunteers from the UC Master Gardeners of Fresno County. During the welcome reception guests enjoyed appetizers under the stars while a pianist played on the terrace.

The silent auction was a huge success with many counties donating beautiful baskets of local goods and handmade items. The total raised from the silent auction was more than $6,400! All of the money raised will go to offset the cost of registration for the 2017 conference.

Of the $6,400 raised, $600 was set aside for need-based scholarships.  We're happy to announce the statewide UC Master Gardener Program and UC ANR are matching the $600, bringing the total up to an impressive $1800 to support need-based scholarships in 2017.

Sessions, sessions, and more sessions!

Day two of the conference was dedicated to track sessions.  With six breakout rooms and eight different session times there were 48 potential topics for UC Master Gardeners to absorb. Activities ranged from a hands-on propagation workshop and gardening during a drought to UC Master Food Preserver presentations. The array of options for conference participants made 2014 the most diverse UC Master Gardener event to date.

Visit the conference website to download some of this year's most memorable presentations. Many generous speakers have offered to share their presentations for future reference with conference attendees, visit the conference website to view the uploaded presentations.  

Following a full day of learning, attendees were invited to join together in the grand ballroom for dinner. Renee Shepherd, owner of Renee's Garden, joined UC Master Gardeners for dinner as the night's keynote speaker. Shepherd discussed her pioneering career in the seed business as well as future trends in the gardening industry. She also explained the differences between heirlooms, hybrids and open pollinated seed varieties during her presentation titled, “A Seedy Business”.

Search for Excellence Winners and Honoring Pam Geisel 

The final day of the conference started with three inspiring presentations from the 2014 Search for Excellence winners. Riverside, Santa Clara and Orange counties presented their winning projects to conference attendees.

Following the winning Search for Excellence presentations was attendees enjoyed a heart-warming celebration of gratitude for Pam Geisel, honoring her years of service to the UC Master Gardener Program. Geisel began her career with Cooperative Extension in 1981 as an environmental horticulture advisor. In 2006, Geisel became the first statewide director of the UC Master Gardener Program, helping to establish the program under the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) and doubling program reach before her retirement in 2013. UC ANR's Associate Vice President, Bill Frost, was at the conference to recognize Geisel for her contributions to the program and awarded her with the 2014 ANR Distinguished Service award for Outstanding Leadership.

The conference's final keynote presenter, Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries, delivered a presentation on “Humor from the Horticultural Trenches” with many outrageous remarks and requests from the perspective of a garden clerk. Before attendees got on the road to travel home, a generous donation of plants from Monrovia were awarded to some lucky attendees.

See you in Southern California in 2017

Many thanks to the numerous volunteer, host counties and conference planning committee members who made the 2014 conference a reality.  Without their dedication and support the conference would not have been possible. We look forward to reaping the harvest of our success in growing together at the 2017 UC Master Gardener Conference in Southern California.

Do you have a suggestion for the next conference or feedback for this year's event? Let us know at ucanr.edu/mgfeedback.

The UC Master Gardener Program has officially re-launched the statewide website with a clean and mobile friendly design. The new website focuses on program impacts and the mission of UC Master Gardeners.

What is new?

• Clean new look with easy navigation
• Program impact statements and stories from around the state with a focus on strategic initiatives: healthy communities, plants and environments
• History timeline of UC Cooperative Extension and the UC Master Gardener Program
• Interactive map for visitors to easily locate a local program
• “Help Us Grow” section for online giving to support the UC Master Gardener Program statewide
• Easy to find gardening resources for the public
  
  
  

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“The content is useful and well-presented and most importantly, easy to find… [the new site] has come together beautifully.” - Pam Geisel, Environmental Horticulture Advisor Emeritus and past Director of the UC Master Gardener Program

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The new website was developed to improve the visitor's experience, whether they are a UC Master Gardener or member of the public. We encourage UC Master Gardeners to visit the new website and become familiar with the new design and information available!