http://groups.ucanr.org/sbdisplay/blogs.cfm?county=6385&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed California Practical Gardener Blog en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:53:41 PST Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:53:41 PST The California Center for Urban Horticulture and the Master Gardener program have an exciting workshop coming up on Saturday March 6 at the UC Davis campus.  Rosalind Creasy, the ‘Mother of Edible Landscaping’ and prominent author, will be joining us to talk about using fruits and vegetables in your home landscape.  This exciting workshop will cover design, soil, pest management and more!  Your registration of $45 includes morning coffee, and lunch.  Please join us – you’ll leave prepared to......
]]> Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:04:15 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2248&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2248 Ideas about sustainable gardening practices have really become part of the mainstream in many ways.  It is common to see people composting green waste and mulching their gardens.  There are more efficient irrigation systems that respond to weather demands and most people have installed automatic irrigation controllers.  Even though we are doing these things, there is so much more we can be doing.  We can be keeping more of our green waste on site.  We could be using less fertilizer and even......
]]> Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:42:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2159&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2159 I am of an age that when I was a child we got to burn our fall leaves in the gutter outside our house.  I remember the pungent and sweetly smoky smell of the burning leaves.  I am only occasionally blessed with a passing whiff of that smell and when I do smell it, all of those childhood memories come flooding back.  However, it is generally now unacceptable to burn leaves because of air quality restrictions.  That is really okay because there are so many good things you can do with all those......
]]> Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:24:46 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2018&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2018 WORKSHOP REGISTRATION CLOSED--SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!Winter is a great time to prune many of your evergreen trees and shrubs.  You can use the clippings and create beautiful holiday wreaths and swags to decorate your home for the holidays.  Join me in this hands-on holiday traditional workshop. Participants will learn how to prune evergreens properly and then take those evergreens and make them into beautiful wreaths or swags to take home.  Cost is $40.00 per person and includes all supplies for a......
]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:37:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1983&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1983  Cheryl Wilen, IPM Specialist in Weed management provides tips on using weed block fabric to effectively manage annual weeds as well as how to manage small infestations of nutsedge can be viewed on a U-Tube Video.  Each video is about 2 minutes.  To view go to:  http://www.youtube.com/Ucanr#p/a/u/0/Cv2QO7fus20http://www.youtube.com/Ucanr#p/a/u/1/3I4BR5Q8mT0...
]]> Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:03:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1927&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1927 You take a few days off from the garden and all of a sudden it becomes a battle ground between you and the various insect pests that invade....I noted that there were numerous holes in my once perfect broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants.  I also saw a number of velvety green worms camouflaged within the foliage with the only telltale sign of them being there were the holes in the leaves and an abundance of frass (insect excrement) they leave behind.  These are relatively easy pests to......
]]> Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:09:22 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1900&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1900 Spring is when most people get energized to plant trees in their garden but fall is a much better time if you live in a temperate climate.  There is less stress on the trees because of lower temperatures, reduced transpiration and a higher moisture availablity.  The roots have a chance to grow out into the native soils during the winter before the onslaught of high summer heat.  Also, if you are choosing trees for their fall color, they should begin to show some color now depending upon the......
]]> Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:42:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1876&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1876 As a Master Gardeners and Advisors, we receive a lot of samples of plant problems. Some problems are easy to identify but others can be perplexing and often confounded by inadequate information.  I recently received a sample of Bradford pear leaves (Pyrus calleryana) with very interesting symptoms.  At first, I thought that the plant may have been picking up something that was toxic to it because it appeared that the leaf was showing dieback progressively from the middle of the leave out to the......
]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:58:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1826&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1826 Is it really fall?  It is going to be 101F today but yet, the nights are cooling off and that makes all the difference in the fall garden.  I went to a nursery to purchase some transplants and they said..."we don't have them in yet because it is still too hot".  I wanted to say nonsense!  It is almost too late for planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and the other cole crops for much of California.  The reality is, if you wait until it really cools off, your plants will just sit there for......
]]> Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:40:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1787&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1787 If you want to learn more about growing olives and curing them safely at home, join our Home Olive Curing Workshop on Saturday, September 26th, 9-12 at the historic Mills Orchard near Hamilton City, CA (located about 1-1/2 hours north of Sacramento).  UC Olive Expert Bill Krueger and myself, will discuss olive culture, varieties and share our knowledge about olive curing with hands-on demonstrations.  Cost is $35.00 and includes olive tasting, refreshments and recipes and this publication.  To......
]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:40:04 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1727&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1727 Composting Is Good for Your Garden and the Environment (ANR Publication 8367), has now been published online and is available at no charge at the ANR CS Web site at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8367.pdf To view the catalog listing for this title, go to this URL: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/InOrder/Shop/ItemDetails.asp?ItemNo=8367. Let us know if you have any trouble viewing, downloading, or printing the publication.Some key tips about composting this time of year include: Keep......
]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:24:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1726&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1726 This is my first post on this blog and it is about gardening in its most PRACTICAL and useful sense.  So often I see articles about gardening that are really beautiful and lyrical but geez...how real are they?  The thing they don't tell you is that that container that was so lush and full of flowers in the picture only lasted for about 3 months or that just before the photo every piece of leaf litter was meticulously picked up and the lawn photo was airbrushed.  My goal with this weekly blog is......
]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:27:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1699&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed pmelam@ucdavis.edu(Pamela Geisel) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1699