October in Sonoma County

Sundays with Sue

By SCMG Sue Lovelace
Updated: October 21, 2018 

It's been a busy week and there’s lots to share but first I want to recognize sweet, stylish and quite spunky, Norma Cowden, who just turned 98 in September! This long-time Master Gardener is well known by our training classes as the one who made sure food and beverage was set up and ready to go before the long hours of college-level instruction. She performed this task for 10 years. Before that, she was a co-coordinator of Master Gardener classrooms and a well participated Master Gardener, here, and in the state of Florida. A former nurse, Norma also traveled throughout Germany and beyond, with her husband who was in the service. She has lots of stories to tell and we sometimes get to hear them when out to lunch with fellow Master Gardener, John Chavez, and, yes, we are inspired and in awe, of this amazing lady.

Speaking of being inspired, one did not have to go any further than our monthly SCMG meeting, where entomologist and Master Gardener, Janet Calhoun, dazzled us with up close, and sometimes personal, fascinating information on our native bees. I am guessing most of us went right home looking for the beautiful, iridescent bright green, very common in our yards, Sweat Bee. Janet sited our native, solitary bees as the heroes of the garden, especially with the decline of the European Honey Bee. To attract and keep the native bees in your garden, have a diversity of flowering plants (bees love blue and yellow), especially native ones, that bloom throughout the year. You will want to provide “homes,” which can mean leaving some soil bare for ground nesters, and hollow stems like sunflowers, bamboo, or simple holes drilled in wood, for the cavity nesters. A water source is important as is minimizing or abandoning the use of herbicides and pesticides. So much of what we eat depends upon pollination by the bees, as well as animals and other insects, to develop their fruit. Being a thoughtful and purposeful gardener, in this respect, is a profound responsibility.

A trip to tour school gardens in Sonoma opened my eyes to the levels of responsibility by which an elementary, and even more so, an intermediate student can tackle and even master in the garden. We saw raised beds of vegetables and student-built garden benches at Woodland Star Elementary by 3rd-5th graders, who journaled their efforts in hand-made books. The 6th graders sell produce weekly in front of the school combined with bookkeeping and sales coordination as part of their tasks. At the nearby intermediate school, Altimira, students toured us through gardens, greenhouses, hoop houses and chicken coops, plus a culinary center where coordinator, Kim Weber, teaches different cultures of preparing food. An adjoining 1/3 acre garden and orchard, got “off the ground” (literally) with funding from the Michelle Obama Nutrition Grant. The “farm” supplies fruit, vegetables, flowers, plus the eggs from the chickens (up to 18 a day) which they sell at a roadside stand, and a table at the farmer’s market, plus standing floral orders at the school office. It did not take long for Stonehenge Winery to recognize the sustainability of such endeavors to become a sponsor of the garden. Long-time botany and horticulture teacher, Benjamin Van Eichorn, teaches and oversees the students’ gardening and business prowess as they develop lifelong skills. Again, inspiring.

Have a great week!

Woodland Star Garden Blessing: “Give thanks to Mother Earth; Give thanks to Father Son; Give thanks to the plants in the garden, where Mother and Father are One.”

Master Gardeners in Print

The Garden Doctors
Dana Lozano &  Gwen Kilchherr, The Press Democrat

Divide up bearded iris, plant bigger bulbs for bigger blooms, 8/17/2018

Harvest time is here. Now what?, 8/3/2018

 

 

Garden Wisdom
Sonoma Magazine 7/2018

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