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Introduction Traditional winter cereal cover crops planted in the Salinas valley have many potential benefits including, scavenging nitrate in the soil profile, increasing organic matter in the soil, and protecting the soil from erosion during storm events.

Register here (by Friday Sep 13) for this Saturday's Lose the Lawn- Go Native! workshop with Jim Brugger, a popular speaker from the CA Native Plant Society. Sat, Sep 14 from 10-12 noon at the UCCE classroom at 2145 Wardrobe Ave, Merced.

In early May we planted a passion vine (Passiflora genus) in our garden. Over the past few weeks, we have had the pleasure of watching several Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) butterflies go through the process from egg to adults. (All photos are by the author unless noted).

From honey bees to butterflies to nematodes--those will be some of the topics when the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology hosts its fall quarter seminars. The seminars begin Monday afternoon, Sept. 30 and continue every Monday through Dec. 2.

Dr.

I have always loved zinnias for their vast range of colors and beauty. We once had a farm near me that you could go and pick your own flowers to bring home and enjoy, sadly they are no longer there. Since they moved on I decided I would try and plant some by seed this year.

It's getting close to the end of our summer gardening season. Now is the time to start thinking about next summer's garden.

F\ig Wax Scale has recently been detected in the environment in the San Diego County. This insect is commonly intercepted at ports of entry, especially on shipments of palms, but has not previously established a reproductive population in California to our knowledge.

It's getting close to what I call California native plant season. Fall and winter are the best times to plant natives, and that's also when the Napa Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) holds its annual plant sale.