Gardening

Integrated Pest Management Workshop for Retail Nurseries and Garden Centers Register now for this hands-on, train-the-trainer workshop designed especially for retail nursery and garden center employees, managers, owners, and affiliates.

The latest issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM Newsletter is now available. In this newsletter we address the science surrounding herbicides, personal protective equipment when using pesticides, and our upcoming training exclusively for retail nursery and garden center employees.

Landscape trees provide welcome shade, fruit, homes for wildlife, and even a place for kids to climb. But if the wood is damaged, disease-causing fungi can infect the tree. A number of fungal diseases decay wood in both tree branches and trunks, weakening and sometimes killing the tree.

Many gardeners and landscapers enjoy growing and caring for roses. Through careful selection of varieties and appropriate cultivation, roses can be grown with a minimum of pest problems.

Palm trees are commonly seen in California, making some think about the tree-lined streets of Hollywood, or sitting by the pool somewhere.

Gophers are well-known and certainly unwelcome pests in landscapes, gardens, lawns, and athletic turf. More correctly called pocket gophers, these rodents mostly remain hidden underground in tunnels and feed on plants from below, sometimes pulling whole plants into their tunnels.

Do you work at or service a school or multiple schools? If so, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is seeking your input about the Healthy Schools Act.

Applying the wrong amount of pesticide can result in poor control if not enough is used; too much being applied can lead to waste and possibly illegal usage. If pest control is insufficient, the end result might be a second application that will be more expensive due to the cost of labor involved.

[Originally published in the Winter 2019 issue of the Green Bulletin] UC IPM is a statewide program within the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

You've probably heard it's important to read the label on a pesticide bottle, but you might not know why or what to even look for on the label.