UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

University of California

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

December in Sonoma County

Bloomin’ Backyards are Back
The Bloomin’ Backyards team is working hard to prepare six unique Petaluma gardens belonging to Master Gardeners for the 2020 BBY Tour. The gardens have been selected for their beauty and as displays of sustainable gardening practices. Each of the gardens will be featured in an article on the website over the next six months. You will learn what to look for in each, and understand what to appreciate such as: goals of the gardener, special features of a particular garden, and important gardening practices such as sustainability, firewise choices, and other valuable horticultural methods.

Photographer, Janice LeCrocq Photography

The first article features Sara Malone’s garden. Enjoy! And, watch this space for new articles.

The Spring 2020 Bloomin’ Backyards garden tour is scheduled for Sunday, May 17, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Petaluma. Recognized experts will be on hand to demonstrate and answer questions on organic gardening, soil development, drip irrigation, integrated pest management, habitat gardening, growing fruits and vegetables, water catchment, firewise landscaping, and much, much more. The tour is a biennial event presented by the UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County.

Ticket information will be posted on our website in early January. Please visit sonomamg.ucanr.edu for regularly updated information.

Food Gardening

A Time To Rest...NOT!

It is true that most food gardens have less going on this time of year. Not everyone plants a fall and overwintering vegetable garden. But that does not mean that we sit on our laurels (or summer canned goods, as the case may be). Read 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

Workshop Calendar

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

Sundays with Sue

By SCMG Sue Lovelace
Updated: December 8, 2019

wreath-mixed greens, pine cones, berries, and pomegranates

We asked for rain and that’s what we got, lots of it! I hope everyone is doing okay with keeping water from overtaking your homes and property. We sand bagged early and it seems to have been effective in diverting water away from our garage which was flooded last year. Thinking of those in snow blizzards across the country and here in our own state and us with our rain storms, Mom Nature keeps us on our toes; sometimes, literally!

You may remember me writing about the copious amount of leaves covering our front and back yard a few weeks ago and looking forward to the arrival of a much needed leaf chipper. It came right before Thanksgiving and we spent a day raking up leaves, sending them down the round leaf chipper, thus accumulating lovely, chipped up bits to then put back around our plants as mulch. The large tree and the primary shedder of leaves is the domestic oak (Shumard Red Oak) in the front yard, which many of our neighbors also have. The leaves are very large and really mat up too thickly when laying wet on the ground, thus can suffocate or rot out smaller plants and shrubs if they fall too close to their crowns. Having this leaf chipper is very effective in chopping up these leaves, persimmon ones as well, to then use as mulch.

I was really feeling justifiably sustainable in the backyard after chipping up the extra large fig leaves and laying them right back under the fig tree to eventually leach nutrients back to the tree. The gloating only lasted long enough to see that our chore had many more hours to go and the little area around the fig tree was only a beginning!

When we talk about sustainability and the cycle of giving back to the soil, compost and mulch are ways we do it in addition to planting cover crops and/or keeping roots in the soil. Little communities of beneficial bacteria, fungi and larger organisms, like earth worms and beneficial nematodes, live in and around those roots and beyond. The little white threads we see in a composting soil, called hyphae, are actually bacterium that branch out throughout the soil, gathering nutrients to deliver to roots and the soil around them. According to soil specialist, Karen Guma, letting roots of plants decompose naturally in the soil is important to soil health. (Once the plant is “done” on the surface, clipping it at ground level and allowing it to decompose in the soil is how this is accomplished.)

If you are wondering how, or why, I decided to mention the above information, I will tell you that I attended a presentation by Guma on soil, on native plants and the general web of life that left me inspired. In other words, my experience with leaf mulching is only one tiny segment of all we can do to protect and preserve our environment, both above and below the ground. A gardener’s job can be powerful; right on!

herb wreath with bay, rosemary, and lemon verbena and lemons

After an arrangement / wreath making library presentation today, I came home with several substitutions for the Thanksgiving decor that was still partly occupying the porch and other areas of our small home. Consequently, I am getting closer to the visual shift in holidays as I imagine many of you are. Even though the yard is still looking very fall like, I embrace the spirit of the coming season plus the excitement and music that comes with it and look forward to all it brings.

Be safe, everyone, in whatever weather you are facing, and try to slow down (Look who’s talking!) and enjoy the process and the environment and people around you. The garden will really need us once this rain stops! Have a great week.

“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet but the roots are down there riotous!” Rumi

Master Gardeners in Print

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

What makes a rhododendron a healthy, reliable bloomer? 11/1/2019

The best ways to store squash and potatoes 10/18/2019

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