Test PB Collection: FTE

The Gardening Education Center (GEC) is a dynamic, experimental garden where UC Master Gardeners employ environmentally sound, water-wise methods to propagate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, pollinator plants and cover crops throughout the year.

Feed your garden with organic all-purpose plant fertilizer. Continue to prepare planting beds for spring: Turn the soil and add up to inch of compost. Test your soil for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and add appropriate fertilizers or supplements.

Clean: dead flowers, fallen fruit, leaves and nuts to discourage fungal growth and pests. Plant: beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, pumpkins, summer squash and tomatoes Water: Check irrigation systems by turning them on and inspecting them to make sure everything is working properly.

Plant bulbs for spring colorful fall flowers: pansies, violas, mums, stock, snapdragons, cyclamen. cool season vegetables: garlic cloves (2 inches deep and 3 to 6 inches apart) Fertilize azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons with fertilizer for acid-loving plants.

Inventory all sprays and pesticides; take outdated or unneeded chemicals to a hazardous waste center. Find a hazardous waste drop-off location in San Mateo County here. For disposal in San Francisco County, check here. Plant: Cool-season annuals such as violas, primroses and pansies.

Master Gardeners have created a native habitat garden and ecosystem, designed to be low maintenance, educational, and teeming with life. Native California plants were chosen to create a diverse community that provides food for wildlife, attracting birds, butterflies, and other pollinators. This 8,000 square…

Master Gardeners find urban tree stumps, evaluate the visible wood decay and then enter the information into an online database. The presence of decay is an element of tree risk assessment, which is used in urban tree management (retention/removal).

Healthy soil is the single most important building block in gardening. First, make sure you know what kind of soil you have. Then, consider techniques to build healthy soil that will grow a bountiful garden.

  We enjoy an unusual climate in San Mateo and San Francisco Counties. Dry summers, mild winters, and the influence of bay and ocean make it possible to grow an amazing variety of plants.This climate also has its challenges. Mild winters may not provide enough "chill" time for some fruits to…

Understanding the basic form of a tree, then pruning and training using proper techniques, will help that tree grow into its most structurally sound and graceful shape. Its important to start when the tree is young. The same holds true for pruning shrubs.