UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

University of California

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

July in Sonoma County

Master Gardeners at the Santa Rosa Vets Farmers' Market

Farmers' Markets in Sonoma County
Sonoma County farmers' markets are in full swing. You'll find a Master Gardener information table at most of them. Do you have gardening questions? We have gardening answers! Stop by--we'd love to meet you. Click here to find out the markets where you'll find us!

Looking for something to do with your children this summer?

The Petaluma Regional Library hosts regular summer Friday events. Following these events, there will be 6 great garden events geared to get kids interested in the natural world.
Click here for more information.

Sue Lovelace receives Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors

Sue (second from left) receiving her recognition from Sonoma County Supervisors Susan Gorin, Shirlee Zane and David Rabbitt

This year the County Board of Supervisors membership chose to honor Sue Lovelace as Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. Sue became a Master Gardener in 2007 and has since volunteered over 3,000 hours, a feat shared by few. She is a Food Gardening Specialist and Garden Sense Consultant and has a featured weekly blog "Sundays With Sue."

Click here to read more.

Food Gardening

Harvesting

5- Sun Gold 8-27-2012 - From 'Tomato Trials' conducted by FGS

Most gardeners transitioned their food gardens from spring to summer in May and June. July and August are months of harvest abundance. Given all of the work that we put into our gardens (planning, composting, sowing and planting, mulching, watering and pest management), it's important to harvest our crops at their peak flavor and nutrition. Read more.

GardenSense - On-site WaterWise Garden Consultations

Sonoma County residents wishing to schedule a garden consultation can click here.

Sonoma County Master Gardeners are partnered with the Sonoma County Water Agency on a project called GardenSense. The project is intended to help local gardeners further improve their water conservation practices. A free on-site consultation by a pair of GardenSense Consultants will demonstrate to residents how to easily conserve water (and save money) by creating a climate-appropriate garden that is healthy, environmentally sound, and most of all – beautiful!

Master Gardeners participating have received special training enabling them to become specialist Consultants to advise Sonoma County gardeners how to improve the water efficiency of their gardens.

Topics covered in consultations include advice on lawn removal, low water use plants appropriate to your site, conversion of sprinklers to drip irrigation, an irrigation assessment including overall suggestions for improving water efficiency, and sustainable garden practices.

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

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: Paul Vossen

SCMG Coordinator: Mimi Enright

Interested in becoming a master gardener? Click here for information and the application for the 2018 training program.

Workshop Calendar

Event Name	Date
The Transitional Food Garden- Harvest for the Hungry- Santa Rosa	8/26/2017
Plant 4 Pollinators-Rincon	8/26/2017
Health Care for Succulents- Harvest for the Hungry- Santa Rosa	9/9/2017
The Transitional Fall/Winter Food Garden	9/9/2017

Find links to workshop handouts under Resources/Workshop Handouts.

Sundays with Sue

By SCMG Sue Lovelace
SUNDAYS WITH SUE - Updated: July 16, 2017

Big excitement in this house; we ate our first green beans from the garden, and they were sooo good!! They were purple and green bush beans plus a few purple pole beans, picked young and tender, then sautéd in olive oil. Yummy! Am I going to get this worked up over the first cucumber, squash, pepper and tomato? You bet!! I know many of you have already been reaping your own harvest of these veggies. Hooray! There is something so special and gratifying about growing one’s own food. When we are all in the depths of major harvest, trying to keep up, will we forget the thrill of the first?!

Speaking of harvest, the peaches are great this year! The little dwarf tree in our front yard pumps out an amazing amount of large ‘Alberta’ peaches. Learned from last year, I picked them colored but hard and they ripened within a day. A later season peach in the backyard still has a few weeks to go. Also, in the backyard, we picked our Gravenstein apples. They are small from lack of thinning, but will still be good for sauce, crisp and munching.

Spending time in my garden and in the community garden at Bayer Farm has allowed me the opportunity to look at many styles of food gardening, the climatic differences, the soil, and the fruits and vegetables themselves. The comparison makes me understand how there are so many ways to garden; how the higher temperatures and water table at Bayer sustain perennial trees and plants; how many years of plant and soil layering has created a supernatural growth medium and how some veggies respond similarly in spite of the different micro climates. I could go on and on with specifics but not enough space. One observation is with kale, a cool weather Veggie, usually diminished this time of year with heat and cabbage butterfly larvae. In both places, the curly kales, blue and scarlet, are not only doing great, but seem to have the tenderness but, also, lack the bitterness of a lot of other varieties. Being a kale lover, and one who grows it for the chicken’s snacks, my fall planting and winter will be with this in mind. I would encourage all to take a walk around a community garden or even a friend's or even in conversation, and learn!! As always, I love to hear from you about your garden. Enjoy!

By the way, when you read this, we will be in Yosemite with not great reception but know I will respond if I can.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir

Master Gardeners in Print

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

French versus Korean lilacs and a bad broom to avoid

Find the perfect garden hose for your plant

From mealybugs to earwigs, what’s eating your garden?

Are ‘roly-poly’ bugs a problem?

Prescription for healthy veggies

Over the Garden Fence
Steve Albert, Kenwood Press

Vegetable watering tips

Made Local Magazine
featuring Spring Gardening Tips by Sue Lovelace
(Pollinator Friendly Garden &
Grow Your Own Food)
and Susan Foley (Low-Water Gardening)

Form and Foliage
Delight your senses: visit Sonoma County Master Gardener Sara Malone's Form and Foliage blog. Janice LeCocq, photographer of Sara's Petaluma garden, gives us her unique perspective.

https://formandfoliage.wordpress.com/

Webmasters: Kim Roche, Stan Pawlak

Food Gardening Editor: Stephanie Wrightson

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

Information Desks:
Santa Rosa: (707) 565-2608
M-F 9-12, 1-4
email: mgsonoma@ucdavis.edu
(If clicking this link doesn't work, type the email address in your email program)
or bring plant problems in for analysis
Locations/REQUIREMENTS

Click Here to request a Garden Sense consultation

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