Botanical Blog

Master Gardeners: A one-stop shop for horticulture questions

Have you heard of the Master Gardeners of Solano County? Do you know who 
we are and what we do?
We are homemakers, teachers, professors, and people from every walk of 
life. The Master Gardener program is a group of 88 active volunteers 
under the guidance of our county-funded Master Gardener program 
coordinator, Jennifer Baumbach. She is the only paid person managing the 
Master Gardeners.
The office that houses us is known by many different names: UC 
Cooperative Extension, Solano County Cooperative Extension, and 
Cooperative Extension.
These are all the same entity. We are also part of the program that 
includes 4-H clubs, Livestock and Natural Resources, Small Farms and 
Urban Horticulture, and Nutrition, Family and Consumer Science. Most 
people dont realize what a rich and diverse unit this is.
We Master Gardeners are known for our passion of gardening and teaching 
others what we have learned. This past year we have come in contact in 
excess of 3,000 county residents, helping you with gardening questions 
big and small.
To become a Master Gardener requires 50 hours of classroom studies over 
16 weeks of UC Cooperative Extension training in horticulture. Classes 
are taught by professors in the UC system, in the field, and Master 
Gardeners.
The trainees are taught fruit tree growing, safe use of fertilizers, 
ways to use less pesticide by employing integrated pest management, 
water usage, soil management/modification, and pest and weed 
identification, to name a few.
Once we pass the written test and graduate, we are ready to pass this 
knowledge on to you, the public.
Some of the events that you will find the Solano County Master Gardener 
volunteers at include:
The libraries in the county where we give talks on gardening once a month.
Dixon May Fair, Solano County Fair, Lambtown and Morningsun Herb Farm.
We had a workshop at Foster Lumber Yard on making a container and 
growing your own vegetables.
Weve spoken at the Napa Camellia Society, Vaca Valley Garden Club, 
Geranium Club and Leisure Town Womans Club.
Master Gardeners are part of Suisun Valley Family Farm Fun Days, 
Fairfield Health Fairs, Fairfield Tomato Festival, and the Solano County 
Resource Conservation District plant sales in Vacaville.
Weve led garden tours in most Solano County cities as well as working 
with elementary schools.
We write garden articles that are published in the Daily Republic on a 
weekly basis.
Our Seed for Thought quarterly newsletter is completely created by the 
Master Gardeners.
We write articles for the Vaca Valley Garden Club newsletter.
If you have a plant or insect problem and cant visit us in person, you 
can e-mail your problem to us at [email protected] or call our 
hotline 784-1322.
You are welcome to walk into the office at 501 Texas St., first floor, 
Fairfield, and someone will help you with you plant or insect problem.
We designed and planted the Childrens Memorial Garden at the Solano 
County Childrens Health and Social Service Facility, 275 Beck Ave., 
Fairfield. We maintain this garden every month during the spring, 
summer, fall and as needed during the winter months.
Once a year we hold a workshop on propagation where you learn how to 
grow plants so you can create more of the plants you like without having 
to purchase them.
We have had workshops on rose care that included not only how to care 
for them but how to prune them so you will have wonderful roses.
Last year, we held a public plant exchange where you bring in plants you 
no longer want or that you wanted to share and exchange for other unique 
plants.
This way you got to choose from different plants. Maybe one you might 
not have thought you would like, or ones you would like to have but just 
hadnt purchased because you were not sure what they would look like or 
if they would fit in your garden.
Our wreath workshop is the only project that we charge for. But you make 
a beautiful wreath from cuttings we have gathered. You also get to add 
natural decorations and a bow of your choice that we supply. This way 
you have a beautiful wreath you have made yourself to hang on your door 
or above your mantel.
Let the Master Gardeners of Solano County be your resource for all 
things gardening.
Betty Victor is a Master Gardener with the University of California 
Cooperative Extension office in Fairfield. If you have gardening 
questions, you can call the Master Gardeners office at 784-1322.

Why Cut Good Programs?

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the Master Gardener program and 4-H program may go away. In the proposed County budget the UCCE budget is cut by 36 %.  In a small department, unfortunately, severe cuts result in personnel cuts.  The Master Gardener Coordinator and the 4-H Coordinator positions will be cut to half time.

Both coordinators oversee very active volunteer programs; I will mostly address the Master Gardener program as that is what I am familiar with.  Jennifer Baumbach oversees 88 volunteers who help spread research based horticultural information to the community. We fulfill our mission in various ways: newspaper columns, blogs, library lecture series, speaking at garden clubs, hotline, booths at farmer's markets and fairs, community workshops and plant exchanges. 

Besides basic how to information on gardening; how to improve your soil or how to grow orchids, we also offer information on several issues important in these troubling times. We've given many talks on Integrated Pest Management or how to get rid of your pest with the least environmental damage, or how to choose drought tolerant plants so we can conserve our precious resources. Lately people have been very interested in information on growing their own food, for both the health and financial benefits. 

Requests for speakers and demonstrations are way up. Which makes it even more sad that our program may be crippled. I doubt the program can subsist with a half-time coordinator. It just doesn't make sense to me to get rid of volunteers in these hard times. We've been told that for each one dollar invested in UCCE five dollars of work is done because of our extensive use of volunteers.

Please contact your County Supervisor at 675 Texas Street, Suite 6500, Fairfield, CA 94533.  If you don't know who your supervisor is, please follow this link to who represents you http://www.solanocounty.com/depts/rov/elected_n_appointed_officials/districtlookup.asp 

Please ask them to eliminate personnel cuts at UCCE and save the Master Gardener and 4-H programs.                        
                                                     

Karen Metz, Master Gardener

Meet the UC Davis arboretum all-stars on their Web site

Pardon me, but have you been properly introduced to the UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars? If not, now is definitely the time. 

Mr. and Mrs. Home Gardener may I introduce you to 100 plants that thrive in our Central Valley conditions, remain attractive most of the year, and have been tested in the UC Davis Arboretum. Our Central Valley conditions mimic the Mediterranean climate that means cool, rainy (hopefully) winters and hot, dry summers. Think Barcelona, Rome, or even Athens. The daytime highs in these Mediterranean cities closely match our own. 

The Arboretum All-Stars list consists of plants that are native to California and many that are native to the Mediterranean area. They are drought tolerant, require low maintenance, and attract beneficial wildlife. The list takes the guesswork out of plant selection that is appropriate for our area. 

I tend to think of pansies and primroses as winter color, not spring color as many big-box stores would like to have you think. 

The drought tolerance of the Arboretum All-Stars means you can use less water in your garden. This means less water runoff and therefore less erosion. Many of the 100 choices are naturally pest-free. Additionally, many provide habitat for beneficial insects that keep plant pests in check. That means there is less need to use pesticides. Fewer pesticides means decreased amounts of toxic chemicals in our waterways. Lower water and pesticide use relates to green savings and by that I mean greenbacks. Just call yourself The Thrifty Gardener. 

The All-Stars include perennials, groundcovers, vines, shrubs and trees. There are also some lush grasses to add movement to your landscape. The All-Stars are growing in the UC Davis Arboretum. You can visit the arboretum 365 days a year, 24/7 at http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu. The Web site has wonderful information about this outreach program. All of the plants are listed on the Web site with color photos, Latin and common names, cultural requirements, growth patterns and sizes, bloom season, and water needs. 

There is even a podcast. After watching the podcast I paged through the plant guide and found that many of the plants in my own backyard are on the list. It was fun to check off those plants including Aquilegia eximia (serpentine columbine), Echeveria Imbricata (hen and chicks), Heuchera Rosada (rosada coral bells), Nepeta x faassennii (hybrid catmint), Hardenbergia violacea (lilac vine), lavandula x ginginsii and stoechas (Goodwin Creek Grey and Otto Quast lavenders), Rosa Korbin (Iceberg rose), Salvia clevelandii Winnifred Gilman with its maroon stems and blue-violet flowers, and several other salvias, Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava), and Crataegus phaenopyrum (Washington hawthorn). Thats over a dozen without even knowing it. 

This spring the Arboretum All-Stars went retail. The Web site provides a growing list of nurseries that carry these plants. Its too bad that there are no nurseries in Solano County featuring these wonderful plants. You can purchase the all-stars at the UC Davis Arboretum plant sales. 

The next plant sale is Oct. 3. Mark your calendar. 

Dottie Deems is a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Fairfield. If you have gardening questions, you can call the Master Gardeners office at 784-1322.

The Good Life Garden lives up to its name

The University of California, as a land grant institution, is well known for its dedication to community outreach through programs such as Master Gardeners. A relative newcomer on the scene, the UC Davis Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, continues that mission. Its purpose is to expose and educate a wide audience to the relationship between good food and good health. Its web page at http://www.goodlifegarden.ucdavis.edu describes an intention to create a link between departments housed in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science on campus, and the surrounding Yolo County landscape. The Good Life Garden is a real working garden and contains a year-round edible landscape, featuring organic and sustainable grown vegetables, herbs and flowers. Adjacent to the Robert Mondavi Institute, it offers the perfect practice of what it preaches. I saw the garden at the end of April. It was well-organized, thriving and inspirational. Im eager to return soon to see what it looks like now. With the popularity of books such as Michael Pollans The Omnivores Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolvers Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, has come new interest in eating vegetables grown locally and in season. According to the Web site, The aim of the Good Life Garden is to educate the public on how to buy and plant seasonal vegetables for the best taste and highest nutritional content. Each season the gardens planting list will be available online along with information on how to grow, harvest, buy, and cook the various plants, herbs, and fruits found in the garden. A description like this is irresistible to master gardeners, first time gardeners and most anyone else who eats, Id guess. A list of what to plant each season? Specific to our area? With pointers about how to actually make all that work worthwhile? And if you dont plan to grow your own, its nice to have a place to go that will tell you which of the vegetables in the produce section of the market didnt require a long journey on a jet to get here. The Good Life Garden newsletter is available on the Web site for the asking and keeps all that information current. The Good Life Garden is more than a physical space. A series of successful programs has been launched, including A Tasty Exploration of the Asian Lunar Year, The California Gold Rush: What We Ate, A Mothers Day Brunch and Backyard Edible Gardening: Growing a Successful Vegetable Garden.  The only one I attended was, unfortunately, the only one where no food was served, but the experience was well worth it anyway. Presented by Robert Norris of the Weed Science Program in UCDs Plant Science Department, Backyard Edible Gardening was comprehensive and designed specifically for local gardeners by someone who has grown his own local garden for many years. Norris first caution in his list of essentials for success is the planting date. Plants simply have a much better chance if they are planted at the correct time. Number two was also planting date. Hes obviously serious about this. Third on the list is variety. Some varieties of vegetables grow better in our area than others. Some varieties can tolerate more sun than others, some more wind. Some have been developed to withstand the attentions of common insects; some prefer one soil type over another. We can do ourselves a favor by looking specifically for varieties that seem to match the growing conditions in our own gardens. Why start off with something destined to struggle no matter how attentive we are? Last on the Norris list is everything else. And of course thats true. No matter how closely we follow good advice, some plants are just doomed at our hands .... well, mine anyway. He covered the need to prepare soil properly and to compost and mulch generously. We were cautioned not to walk on the soil around our plants because of the compaction that occurs. He suggests the use of planks. In our Mediterranean climate irrigation is essential. Most vegetable crops are not drought tolerant. On the topic of pest management we were reminded that correct identification of the problem and the pest involved is essential to choosing correct management strategy. The UCD Integrated Pest Management Web site, http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu, is invaluable in helping us get this right. Identification is easy and solutions are environmentally friendly. With so many resources we all have a fighting chance at growing our own edible garden this summer. There are lots of plants in area nursery departments just waiting to show their stuff. Bon Appetit! Marime Burton is a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Fairfield. If you have gardening questions, you can call the Master Gardeners office at 784-1322.