Ongoing research

Photo by D.Bellamy (A front door rock garden) This blog will discuss why so many people use rock art to enhance the appearance of their gardens, and specifically, stacking rocks. If you have some property with lots of rocks, you may be more likely to remove rocks to make room for planting.

UC Master Gardener Francie Murphy was pruning the succulents in her San Diego front yard when an unfortunate accident catalyzed her commitment to communicating the dangers of toxic plants.

(Editor's Note: She also will present a webinar from noon to 1 p.m., Monday, Feb. 15.) UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Kathy Darragh will discuss All About Heliconius Butterflies at noon today (Feb. 8) as part of the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Month. Link to https://bit.

Worms. I think you either love them or detest the wiggly little guys. I fall into the former category. I love worms, always have.

Earth's carbon cycle transfers carbon between land, oceans, and the atmosphere, and in turn, facilitates the life cycle of all life forms globally. Fire is a part of Earth's terrestrial carbon cycle that is balanced by vegetation recovery and growth.

Is your freezer full of your summer fruit bounty? Are you wondering how to use some of that stashed produce? My freezer was experiencing an overload of plums. The last couple of summers, my Santa Rosa plum tree has provided a large crop each season.

In Our Garden, What Can Go Up Must Go Up by Jane Berger As spent vining plants sighed back on the soil in Mid-October and I began to take down drying Kabocha vines, I remember thinking about the opportunities we took to maximize our growing areas on a small property.

Register for the 2021 Irrigation and Nutrient Management Virtual Meeting here: Registration Link...

by Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County I remember when my parents would go for a drive and the front of the car would be covered with dead bugs that had been hovering in the road. That doesn't happen any longer. The dense populations of bugs have disappeared.

When you're drinking your daily cup of Joe to power your day, do you ever think about coffee plantation pests, such as the coffee borer beetle, aka coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei? Agroecologist Estel Jimnez-Soto, a postdoctoral scholar/lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, does.