Educating the public about the best gardening practices for our region is the primary mission of the UC Master Gardeners of Butte County. A terrific example of our educational outreach was on tap at the first offering of our Fall 2019 Public Workshop series. This 90-minute workshop focused on getting the most out of our Gardening Guide and Three-Year Garden Journal, a publication full of useful information, seasonal tips, and regional plant wisdom specific to Butte County.

Joyce Hill, a Master Gardener and lifelong educator who teaches teachers how to teach, led the workshop. Before delving into her carefully devised learning activities, Hill gave a quick outline of the Guide which was first published in 2014 and is currently being revised. Articles on climate, soil, compost, fertilizer, native plants, sustainable gardening, managing pests, and attracting pollinators comprise the first portion of the spiral-bound book. The following sections combine the format of a journal with pertinent information for every month within each season, starting with spring and ending with winter. Each seasonal segment begins with an overview of what to expect from climate and plants, gardening tasks for that time of year, and ripening fruits and vegetables to be harvested.

Designed with journaling and record keeping in mind, the interactive part of the Guide follows the seasonal introductions. Each of the thirteen weeks of the season is given a two-page layout which features three lined columns, each to be headed by the month and year of use, and filled in by the user as they wish. On the left side of each two-page layout is a short, pertinent article. Helpful tips and items of interest appear on the lower right.

An appendix at the end of the Guide contains pruning and planting guides for the Valley and the foothills, detailed information on caring for fruit trees, and photos and descriptions of common garden pests and beneficial insects.

All-in-all this Gardening Guide is a handy resource for gardeners of all abilities and preferences. But lecturing about what's in the Guide is one thing – getting us into it hands-on is another, and as a good teacher, Hill knew how important it was to engage us in this educational material. To that end, she had prepared a series of garden-, plant-, and climate-related questions, each of which was printed out and pasted onto colored construction paper. Colors were coded by season, and workshop participants were grouped by season/color to locate the answer to each question within the Guide.

About two-thirds of the workshop participants had brought their own dog-eared (or hardly used) Garden Guides with them – the others were able to purchase them on site before we began. Within our groups, we began to leaf through our Guides – the cleverly formulated questions directed us variously to the table of contents, planting guides, pest tables, and task lists.

A former community college instructor myself, I valued group work as an educational tool, and learned to gauge the success of an exercise by the level of noisy interaction occurring in each group. Judging by that criterion, Hill's color-coded questions were a success – we were discovering, learning, and helping each other. Better yet, we were using the Guide as it was intended.

A second benefit of group work is when each team shares the outcome of its investigation. And here is where even more learning occurs – individuals share experiences and knowledge – all of us tapping into expertise that would not have been available in a traditional lecture-oriented class.

The Master Gardeners are working on a revised edition of the Guide, and in wrapping up the workshop, Hill asked participants to critique the existing Guide and offer suggestions for improving the second edition. Changes already in the works include firewise planting and yard maintenance, new and updated sidebar articles, and a section on the basics of garden design (the Guide includes several pages of grid paper for planning to scale). Of course, everyone wanted color photos. So did and do the Master Gardeners. But the prohibitive cost of color images would make the Guide far less affordable for many of its potential users, and getting the information contained in the Guide to as many people as possible is the goal. Other items on the wish list included index tabs (some workshop participants had already added their own), website addresses added to resource lists, an area dedicated to recording climate conditions, and a list of invasive plants.

The Garden Guide and Journaling Workshop showcased and encouraged some highly effective teaching methods, including interaction, self-discovery, and individual and group contributions. A good teacher helps students find the “answer” on their own. The best teachers do this subtly – all of a sudden you have that “aha” moment of discovery without knowing that the exercises crafted, and the information presented, have guided you there. I had just experienced proof of this at our Master Gardener Workshop.

The Garden Guide and Three-Year Garden Journal is currently available in Chico at Magnolia Gift and Garden, the Patrick Ranch Gift Store, the Butte County Cooperative Extension Office in Oroville and all Master Gardener workshops.

To learn more about UC Butte County Master Gardeners and our upcoming workshops and events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call our Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.