UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

University of California

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

March in Sonoma County

Gardening After a Flood

Flooding at Spring Lake, February 28, 2019. Photo by Kim Roche

Many areas in Sonoma County were impacted by flooding recently which can cause damage not only in our homes but also in our gardens. This great document, "Gardening After a Flood", put together by UCCE Santa Clara County, discusses health risks associated with consuming produce after a flood, as well as soil recommendations and timing for when it’s safe to grow food in a garden that has been impacted by flooding. Thanks to our compatriots in Santa Clara County for putting together this great resource!

Got Weeds? We have some tool suggestions.

We all love to see the hillsides turn green with the winter rains, but in our gardens, those newly sprouting green plants are often weeds that are best dealt with before they flower and set more seeds.

We've tested a variety of weeding tools that might help with the task.

Food Gardening

Spring Into Food Gardening

Have you been thinking about starting a food garden? Or, maybe, you're a current food gardener who wants to learn more about sustainable food gardening practices. Whatever, your experience, the Master Gardener Food Gardening Specialists are ready to help. Find out more.

Watch the new Sudden Oak Death Video

The Sudden Oak Death team at the University of California Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources has just released a new video that is well worth watching. There's a lot to learn here, all presented with great visuals to aid our understanding of Sudden Oak Death. Makes learning about SOD easy!

Growing a Thriving Vegetable Garden with Less Water

The Food Gardening Specialists (FGS) of the UCCE Sonoma Master Gardeners are excited to present water-wise food gardening strategies. Given our hot, dry summers along with the prediction of extended drought, we can’t afford to waste a drop. This video demonstrates how home and community gardeners can grow a thriving vegetable garden with less water. In addition, this video is complemented by a planting scheme and a drip system instruction and shopping list that reflect the 4x8-foot demonstration vegetable bed in the video. Click here for these documents along with additional helpful documents for food gardening with less water.

Ask a Master Gardener
Questions and Answers from the Helpline

Watch to Learn What Master Gardeners Do

Fight Invasives!

Master Gardener-staffed Help Desks are located
at Sonoma County Farmers' Markets and Fairs

Master Gardeners are volunteers trained by the UC Davis Cooperative Extension.

Sonoma County Master Gardeners will provide environmentally sustainable, science-based horticultural information to all of Sonoma County’s population. We strive for diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our organization.

UCCE Farm Advisor: Stephanie Larson, County Director

SCMG Coordinator: Mimi Enright

Don’t miss the annual Kendall-Jackson Spring Garden Symposium, partnering with the UC Master Gardeners of Sonoma County. Click here for more information.

Workshop Calendar

Event Name	Date
Bee Dazzled- An Intro to Native Bees - Petaluma	3/23/2019
Don’t Step on it- It’s Alive: An Introduction to Soil - Sonoma	3/23/2019
Getting Ready to Plant: Making the Most of Your Garden Space - HFH Santa Rosa	3/30/2019
High Efficiency Irrigation for the Home Garden -Cloverdale	4/6/2019
Firewise Landscape - Guerneville	4/6/2019
Conquering Gophers and Moles - Healdsburg	4/6/2019

View More Events

Find links to past workshop handouts under Resources/Workshop Handouts.

Sundays with Sue

By SCMG Sue Lovelace
Updated: March 17, 2019

These glorious days of sunshine, following plenty of replenishing rain and snow in the mountains, reminds us that spring is in the air and this year we can enjoy it fully without worries of another drought. Our mindset still needs to be targeted to conserving water, planting wisely, irrigating responsibly, and mulching (we live in a Mediterranean climate, after all, and water will always be precious and, yes, hard to come by especially in the summer), but starting out with filled reservoirs and wonderfully moist soils are a “luxury” we have not experienced in a long time.

Like many of you, I spent a lot of time in the garden this week and plan to spend more: planting what I can, pruning, seeding, composting and tackling those endless maintenance tasks that go with any garden but more so with the wind and deluges of the “Atmospheric River” storms. On the fun side, I continue to “reconstruct” a large area in my front yard made available with the removals of an old buddleja, AKA “Big Bertha,” and a yucca that could have easily been called “Brutus”!

So far in this center bed I have a trio of dwarf fruit trees (2 persimmons and a 7 year old ‘Alberta’ peach) in the midst of existing blueberry shrubs and perennials such as lavender, nepeta, thyme, cranesbill geranium, achillea, Verbena, and Golden Oregano. Reseeds of California and European poppies are emerging, and I’ve brought seedlings of composite flowers (excellent, early blooming, beneficial and pollinator-attracting daisies and calendulas) from the back yard. As you can see, these trees, the blueberries and raspberries are in good company. This week, I was off to the local nurseries. I told you, it was Fun!

Because I believe any garden, wherever it is, front yard, back yard, in containers, etc. should be a diverse combination of plants: edibles, non edibles, herbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees that support each other, and us, in some way, in many ways, with their flowers, their fruit, their coverage of the soil, their shade, and/or their water saving capacity. I have my favorites: herbs like thyme and oregano, which are perennial herbs that serve as repelling and attracting plants, edibles for us and when they flower, in summer, absolute bee magnets. (Cold season herbs and veggies, like cilantro and arugula, when left to flower are amazing attractants to parasitic and pollinating insects right now!)

Back on track, my nursery purchases were Golden Oregano (Origanum vulgare’- can’t have enough great ground cover and edible), purple sage (Salvia ‘Purpurescens’) ’Silver Posie’ and ‘Lemon’ thyme, Scabiosa ‘Gelato Blueberry’ (with flower buds) alyssum, and one summer bloomer I’m really excited about, Veronica incana ‘Pure Silver’. Scabiosa, Verbena, and Veronica are great butterfly and hummingbird plants.

Wishing you a great week in the garden!

“Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.” Hans Christian Anderson

Master Gardeners in Print

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

Coaxing seed to germinate, using newspaper to suppress weeds 3/1/2019

Tricks for growing great wisteria /18/2019

Webmasters: Kim Roche, Stan Pawlak

Website Editor: Penny Fink

Food Gardening Editor: Stephanie Wrightson

Staff Photographers and Videographers:
Cie Cary, Electra de Peyster,
Coby Lafayette-Kelleher, Laura Salo Long