California Master Gardeners 

Story by Kathleen Cotta ’05, Nikki Justino ’05-Alameda County Master Gardeners

A team of several Master Gardeners headed by June Wallace spent a full day setting up the irrigation for the Sorensdale Recreation Center garden. The school provided the materials and Master Gardeners provided technical and hands-on support. A great job was done by all.

This Garden is located at 275 Goodwin Street in Hayward. The primary purpose of this facility is to provide opportuni­ties for develop­mentally disabled persons to partici­pate in recreation­al, educational and daily living skills activities. Food from the garden is used in the on-site kitchen for all who attend the school. South County Master Gardeners have been helping the school for over two years.

Shelly Luchini is the Recreation Coordinator. and exhibits the huge onions in the photo above from the school garden raised beds.  Sim Mirande is a Recreation Specialist and an instructor for many programs, including art, computer classes and the gardens.
Photos taken by Nikki Justino

By Jill Fugaro

Marin Master Gardeners designed and built three temporary demonstration gardens at the Marin County Fair July 1-5 and hosted over 1500 diverse visitors and 450 attendees at 15 workshops over the five days. Visitors met and talked with the Marin Master Gardener teams of two docents who guided them through the exciting admiring space that was built into straw bales, straw wattles and compost made from last year’s fair food waste. The compost was cured into “black gold” in the bio cell at Marin Sanitary Services and then provided the nutrient rich soil in which our plants were installed.  We utilized what we called “The Good Bug Bad Bug“ IPM Kiosk, on loan from UC Davis, to help visitors identify pests and beneficials in their home gardens. Visitors learned about non-thirsty plants, edible gardening in a small space and how to attract honeybees and butterflies to their home gardens by proper plant choices. Each day Marin Master Gardeners gave workshops at 12 Noon, 2 PM and 4 PM.

Since growing food is now a “cool” thing to do we fit neatly into all three tenets of the Marin County Fair theme of COOL GREEN FUN.  Marin Master Gardeners shared how we created a new twist on veggie gardening for visitors’ backyards with a Salsa Victory Garden. Visitors learned how to grow all the ingredients for a delicious salsa recipe in just a 4’ x 6’ space and provided two salsa recipes in the garden and on our website. Three varieties of hybrid and heirloom tomatoes from our annual plant sale were the backbone of the garden. Each of the other nine varieties of plants went into the pot to make a tasty salsa. Marin Master Gardeners showed how to combine edibles with ornamentals like sweet alyssum and marigolds as well as herbs like borage for edible flowers in the vegetable garden to attract beneficial insects. We encouraged families to garden together to see how fun, easy and stress-busting it was to grow their own food in their backyard.

Visitors could join in the Dr. Seuss Garden where wild, crazy, whimsical shapes illustrated that non-thirsty plants don’t have to be boring! Visitors learned how low maintenance and drought-tolerant plant choices could be the right plant in the right place for our Mediterranean climate. Visitors took away postcards printed specifically with our Water-Wise Plant Selector information and website  www.marinmg.org so they could actually see color photographs taken by Marin Master Gardeners of  the drought-tolerant beautiful plant choices suitable for their Marin climate and view plants that save water.

The third garden for visitors was the Give Bees a Chance Garden, our colorful pollinator garden. Visitors learned why honeybees are important to agriculture—that some plants are entirely dependent on bees for their reproduction; they learned about planting colorful (yellow, oranges, blues and purples to attract bees because bees see red as black!) nectar-filled native plants that create habitat for both bees and butterflies. 

The entire demonstration garden design, construction, installation and workshops were videographed by an independent educational nonprofit called Ecoverdemedia. By agreement with our UCCE Director, copies of the edited videos will be provided to UCCE free of charge by the company in exchange for their ability to share this green information in other educational venues.

In addition, there was a double-fold center page of our fifteen Marin Master Gardener expert workshops over five days printed in the Marin County Fair Magazine that mailed to 90,000 Marin residents:

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Planting drought resistant plants; increasing the efficiency of irrigation systems; irrigating based on plant water needs; reusing greenwaste; and, adopting integrated pest management practices are key elements of sustainable landscaping.   Adopting these sustainable landscaping principles improves plant health and reduces water waste, organic matter otherwise destined for landfills, and the use of pesticides.

 In May 2009, the University of California Cooperative Extension’s (UCCE) Master Gardener Program in San Bernardino County organized and conducted two Harmony in the Garden Workshops to demonstrate these sustainable landscape principles to the gardening public.  The two workshops provided similar information but were offered on different days at Loma Linda University East Campus in Loma Linda and Chino Basin Water Conservation District in Montclair, closer to Los Angeles. A capacity attendance of 105 area residents attended the workshops.

The main goal of the free workshops was to teach residents how to reduce their water consumption while making their garden more healthy, colorful and interesting.  The six hour workshops had six presenters, giveaways, and free lunches provided by Loma Linda University and Inland Empire Utilities Agency.

California is in a chronic drought and due to various water issues, the State is likely to remain in a water shortage for years to come.  Since 50% to 70% of a typical household’s water use is directed at maintaining a landscape, planting drought resistant climatically adapted plants and making irrigation systems as efficient as possible are key elements of growing healthier plants and saving water

The speakers and topics included:

• Janet Hartin (UCCE Environmental Horticulturist, San Bernardino and L.A. Counties):  Sustainable landscaping (reducing water waste, reducing and using greenwaste; Implementing Integrated pest management strategies, and the UCCE Master Gardener Program
• Debby Figoni (Master Gardener): Composting and How to Transform One’s Yard into a Waterwise Garden
• Dave Schroeder (Chino Basin Water Conservation District): CBWCD’s Demonstration Garden Tour and How to Use California-Friendly and Native Plants;
• Anita Matlock (Master Gardener and Rainbird): Irrigation Options for Water Conservation and Use of ET-Based Controllers
• Seth (Maloof Foundation):   Overview of the Maloof Garden and How to Use Native and Drought Tolerant Plants
• John (Garrison Nursery) Recommended Native and Drought Resistant Plants and Design Concepts and Examples
• Yvonne Savio (UCCE Los Angeles Common Ground Garden Program):  Recycling Otherwise Useless Items into Garden Tools and Art.

Last April, the Master Gardener Program Coordinator in San Joaquin County, Marcy Hachman, was contacted by a few third grade teachers at Shasta Elementary school in Manteca.  The teachers were interested in starting worm composting at their school but had little expertise. Then the Master Gardeners stepped in and taught a series of classes to both the teachers and the children.  Two third grade classes started composting their lunch scraps after the MGs talked to the classes about worm composting do's and don'ts and all the benefits associated with it. The San Joaquin County Master Gardener program donated several pounds of worms to the school to get this project going and continues to keep in touch with the teachers involved. As a result of these classes, the kids at Shasta Elementary now understand the biology of worms, how to compost using worms and the Master Gardener Program recived some very nice acknowledgements in the local newspaper about both the program and the impact that Master Gardeners can have in the community.  You can read the full story here:  http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090405/A_BIZ/904040313

Over a six-month period, six Sonoma County Master Gardener volunteers assisted the program coordinator by securing a grant from the Sonoma County Water Agency and coordinating the design and installation of a large demonstration garden. The garden themes focused on water conservation, pesticide use reduction, and appropriate plant materials for the climate. At the entrance to the facility, the inmates installed a lovely garden that demonstrates the proper use of drought-tolerant plants that need no pest control, that require little maintenance, and that attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and numerous beneficial insects. With direct inmate interaction and by providing UC handout materials, the Master Gardeners have significantly improved the skills of the individuals involved. Inmates then provide good science-based information to gardeners who come to buy plants.

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Sonoma County inmates installing their new demonstration garden.