Posts Tagged: gardening
A salute to Master Gardener service in Santa Clara
Santa Clara County's Master Gardener Program has channeled UC's research-based gardening information to county residents for 25 years, according to an article marking the milestone that was published in the San Jose Mercury-News last Friday.
Last year, the program's 50 volunteers answered nearly 3,000 questions from home gardeners who called, e-mailed or visited.
The article - written by Master Gardeners Rebecca Jepsen, Lee Ann Ray and Deyana Len - delineated some of the online resources offered by the UC Master Gardener program.
New pages on the Santa Clara Master Gardeners' Web site highlighting water-wise plants - Names and photos of a variety of native and non-native ornamental plants that will thrive in the region's dry climate and clay soil with little to no water once established.
UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program - Extensive information on virtually all aspects of pest management for the home gardener. The site is chock-full of high-quality photos that allow you to identify all the good and bad bugs, pests, diseases, weeds and a whole lot more.
The article closed with recently and frequently asked questions, information on becoming a Master Gardener, and contact information for the Santa Clara program. Click here for the Santa Clara County Master Gardener Program Web site.
A sampling of the water-wise plants for Santa Clara County.
Master Gardeners help school kids grow veggies
An inner-city Los Angeles school has a small vegetable garden that is overseen by a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener, according to a story published yesterday in the Daily Breeze.
"This may be the only place they can have access to nature," the story quoted Master Gardener Kris Lauritson. "It's an outdoor classroom."
The school serves primarily Latino students; about 80 percent qualify for free and reduced lunches.
The program teaches students about healthy diets and gives them a chance to taste fresh foods they may not normally have at home. Students eat what they grow - turnips and broccoli, lettuce and spinach, soybeans, potatoes and cabbage.
Alice Acevedo, a school office worker observing the students as they worked in the garden, told reporter Douglas Morino the kids won't touch fresh fruits and vegetables put out in the cafeteria at lunch.
"But once they grow it themselves, they can't get enough. They're taking pride in what they're doing," Acevedo was quoted.
Los Angeles County's 181 Master Gardeners volunteered 9,272 hours in 2008, serving 87,376 low-income gardeners at 28 community gardens, 46 school gardens, 15 shelter gardens, 5 senior gardens and 13 fairs and farmers markets. For more information on the program and its services, see the LA Common Ground Web site.
It's worth clicking through to the Daily Breeze to see the photographs that accompany the school garden story. The off-axis, vivid and creative images are uncommon in photojournalism. I asked ANR Communications Services media services manager Mike Poe about the trendy garden art.
He said a lot of hip, cool, current video is shot that way.
"The photos are emulating that style to appeal to a young audience or indicate the subject is young," Poe said. "It's a technique I'd use very judiciously."
The school garden story and photos also appeared in the Pasadena Star-News.
LA's 2008 Master Gardener graduates.
Master Gardener shares rare fruit source with Chron readers
A Master Gardener with UC Cooperative Extension in Santa Clara County, Laramie Treviño, turned San Francisco Chronicle readers on to a source of fast-producing, unusual fruit trees in a feature story printed over the weekend.
Treviño profiled C. Todd Kennedy and Patrick Schafer, rare fruit enthusiasts who run their online-only nursery as a "personal charity," the story said. Tree prices are $19.50, low considering they are already a good size and most will produce fruit within one year.
Kennedy and Schafer have constructed an unusual business model for Arboreum.biz.
- Two dozen varieties are offered each year, and then those types are unavailable for a few years thereafter
- Only enough inventory is propagated to ensure that its stock sells out
- The company has no catalogs, no printed growing tips, no listed fax or telephone numbers
- Surplus fruit trees will be available at Filoli Garden Center when the estate reopens Feb. 9. Filoli is a historic country estate about 30 miles south of San Francisco that is open to the public.
- 'Mericrest' nectarine
- 'Turkey' apricot
- 'Silver Logan' peach
- 'Howard's Miracle' plum
Arboreum.biz wasn't working for me this morning. Perhaps the additional traffic generated by the San Francisco Chronicle article was too much for the Web site.
Victory Gardens touted on Pearl Harbor Day
The Fresno morning news show KSEE Sunrise used the occasion of Pearl Harbor Day yesterday to encourage people to plant Victory Gardens. Victory Gardens are fruit, vegetable and herb gardens that Americans traditionally planted during wartime to aid the war effort.
Director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith, is a vocal proponent of a Victory Garden resurgence in California. She maintains a Victory Grower Web site and blog. Hayden-Smith says the connection between American military involvement and the home front isn't what it was in the past, but the American way of life is imperiled by more than foreign wars. The country is facing ever rising fuel and food prices, the threat of global warming and a high rate of obesity.
UC Cooperative Extension Fresno County Master Gardener Carole Grosch explained on the morning TV program that gardening is not just for summertime, but that in most of California a variety of vegetables can be grown outdoors through the winter, such as lettuce, Swiss chard, onions and spinach.
The Fresno County Master Gardeners appear on KSEE Sunrise once a month year round to provide gardening tips and raise awareness for the county's very active Master Gardener program, which involves nearly 200 volunteers and includes a one-acre Garden of the Sun demonstration garden at the corner of Winery and McKinley avenues in Fresno.
Master Gardeners work at the UC Hansen Research and Extension Center in Ventura County.
Great Park development to get underway
The Irvine City Council voted on Tuesday to spend $65.5 million over the next three to five years to transform a portion of the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into parkland, according to the Los Angeles Times. Orange County's "Great Park" - billed as the first great metropolitan park of the 21st century - is across the street from the UC South Coast Research and Extension Center.
The City of Irvine funds will turn about 225 acres of the base into lawns, exhibition space, sports fields, farmland, citrus groves and a wildlife corridor, among other amenities, the Times story said. Eventually, the Great Park will be the focal point for redevelopment of the former 4,700-acre facility. Expected to be almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park, it will include natural areas and open space in addition to recreational and cultural uses.
The UC Cooperative Extension Orange County Master Gardener program has been actively working with Great Park planners and already offers classes at the Great Park Food and Farm Lab. Classes this fall include “Cool Season Vegetables,” “Gardening in Small Spaces,” “The Busy Gardener,” “Spice up Your Life,” “Grow Your own Herbs,” and “Holiday Crafts from the Garden," said a Great Park news release.
The Orange County Great Park Garden Workshop Series is part of a pilot program designed to introduce community members to the Farm and Food Lab, where they can learn about sustainable home gardening practices for a healthy lifestyle.