- Author: Cris L. Johnson
Ventura Master Gardeners are offering this series of workshops at locations throughout the county and are available to the public at no cost.
For a flyer with dates and locations, click here.
To register, click here.
- Author: Cris L. Johnson
Rose leads a statewide initiative for sustainable food systems and has a passionate interest in promoting community and victory gardens. It is no surprise that she won a Twitter contest prize invitation to the tour by expressing within the website's 140 character limit format why she wanted to visit the White House garden.
This was Rose's second visit to the White House gardens. After the tour, the group spent several hours with White House staff learning more about the administration's food and health initiatives. The stay included touring urban garden projects in Washington D.C. with UC ANR advisor Rachel Surls from the UC Los Angeles extension office.
The social is a part of the Fall Garden Tours in October where invitees and members of the public can view the kitchen garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden and South Lawn of the White House.
For more information, please follow the links to view the brochure or check out the White House Blog.
- Author: Cris L. Johnson
The $101 million in grant money will be apportioned to promote two areas:
- $55 million in specialty crop block grants to state that fund 748 initiatives to strengthen markets and expand economic opportunities for local and regional producers.
- $46 million to support new and continuing research and extension activities to address challenges and opportunities for growers and businesses that rely on a sustainable, profitable specialty crops industry.
Specialty crops include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, floriculture and nursery crops.
The key research areas for funding are:
- Improving crop charactistics through plant breeding, genetics and genomics
- Addressing threats from pests and diseases
- Improving production efficiency, productivity and profitabilitiy
- Developing new innovations and technologies
- Developing methods to improve food safety
These grants reflect the continuing efforts by the USDA to stimulate agriculture and food based economic development. UC Ventura County Cooperative Extension and statewide extension in turn provides the research, outreach and expertise to local and potential growers seeking specialty niches in agriculture.
Find out more about this grant program and read the USDA news release in its entirety here.
- Author: Cris L. Johnson
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) will be hosting a Pitahaya/Dragon Fruit tasting and lecture at the Hansen Agrlcultural Center in Santa Paula. This program will be conducted by Jose F. De Soto, Hansen Agricultural Center director, and Ramiro Lobo, UC farm advisor.
Location:
Hansen Agricultural Center (formerly known as Faulkner Farms)
14292 W. Telegraph Rd.
Santa Paula, CA 93060
Time: 9:00 am - Noon
This is a great opportunity for those of you who have not been able to sample the many varieties of dragon fruit to learn more about them and spend a nice morning at the farm.
For more information about the Hansen Agricultural Center click here.
- Author: Cris L. Johnson
So far 58 applicants have applied for 35 opening in this year's comprehensive gardening program. Interviews are currently being conducted and those chosen for the program will receive over 80 hours of horticulture education in basic botany, plant pathology, integrated pest management and irrigation techniques.
Master Gardener trainees in turn perform 50 hours of apprenticeship and volunteer in Master Gardener projects to earn their certification.
Master Gardener volunteer efforts can be seen in the county at the Goebel Center in Thousand Oaks, the Camarillo Ranch House, Ormand Beach Wetland, the Hansen Agricultural Center in Santa Paula, Conejo Valley Botanical Gardens and other locations in Ventura County.
Have a pesty problem or other gardening issue? The program operates a Help Line for home gardeners on Tuesdays and Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Volunteers draw on their knowledge, a comprehensive database of relevant information, advisors and other UC experts to dispense useful information to county gardeners. The Help Line volunteers can be reached at 805-645-1455 or by email at mgventura@ucdavis.edu.
Not a Master Gardener, but would like to attend seminars and workshops? The Master Gardeners conduct four seasonal Home Garden workshops annually on a variety of garden related topics designed for the home gardener. The next workshop in November has a holiday theme, "Creating Holiday Gifts from Your Garden," and features fun hands-on projects and demonstrations. For more details about this workshop, please see this flyer.
Want more information on the Master Gardener program? Please click here to link to Master Gardener webpages.