Ongoing research

swiss chard
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Article

Ready, set, go

March 14, 2025
 As I write this, it is mid-January, and I just finished weeding in my garden. The sun is so pleasantly warm, and I am picking peas, chard, kale, and lettuce from my winter garden. The days are getting a bit longer, bulbs are showing their faces, and my mind is moving towards my spring garden…
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hummingbird at flower
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Article

The beauty and singular importance of the pollinator garden

March 14, 2025
 Gardening is a uniquely healthy, relaxing, and inspirational activity. Planting that seed or seedling is perhaps the ultimate expression of optimism. The beautiful blooms and bountiful harvests we labor to cultivate can provide matchless feelings of accomplishment and pride. But we don’t do it alone…
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coffee grounds
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Article

The biggest gardening myth of all

March 14, 2025
 Gardening myths are common and hard to shake. Most of the time these old wives’ tales are harmless, but sometimes they offer false hope to the gardener.  Take the misconception about adding coffee grounds to soil to increase acidity for growing camellia, hydrangea, and azalea. Turns out fresh…
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UC Master Gardeners of Monterey, San Benito & Santa Cruz Counties: Event

Regenerative Soil Techniques for the Home Gardener

May 3, 2025

Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz County Master Gardeners invite our local community to join us to learn regenerative soil techniques that you can add to your gardening bag of tricks.Growing healthy soil helps the home gardener grow vibrant veggies and herbs, bountiful fruit trees and gorgeous flowers. We will…
UC Master Gardeners of Monterey, San Benito & Santa Cruz Counties
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Ant
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Document

Ants

In the Bay Area, the most frequently found ants populating our gardens and invading our homes are Argentine ants. Argentine ants are small (1/8”), and their queens are slightly larger. Their bodies are constricted, giving them an appearance of a thin waist, which distinguishes them from termites. …
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Aphids
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Document

Aphids

 Small insects that suck fluids out of stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts. Soft pear-shaped bodies with long legs and antennae and may be green, yellow, brown, red, or black. A few species appear waxy or woolly due to the secretion of a waxy white or gray substance over their body surface…
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Cucumber beetle
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Document

Cucumber Beetles

Common vegetable garden pest that also attacks ripening stone fruit. Adult beetles are shiny with black heads, long antennae, and about one-quarter inch long. Striped or spotted depending on species. Larvae are whitish and slender with three pairs of short legs; the head and tip of the abdomen are darker…
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Olives in a bin
Food Blog: Article

Olive growers, enthusiasts invited to UC olive webinar April 4

March 14, 2025
By Pamela S Kan-Rice
Growers and others interested in growing table olives or olives for making olive oil are invited to a California Statewide Olive Seminar on Friday, April 4. The online seminar, a series of presentations from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., is sponsored by the University of California Cooperative Extension and UC…
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cutworm
UC Marin Master Gardeners: Document

Cutworms

 Cutworms are dull brown caterpillars one to two inches long when fully grown. They curl into a C-shape when disturbed. Some clip off seedling stems, while others chew or bore holes. Category InsectSigns/Symptoms Cutworms feed on blossoms and leaves of many ornamental plants and attack most edible…
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