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
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
The Wonderful World of Worms - Sebastopol	4/6/2019
First Steps to a Water Wise Garden - Windsor	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 24, 2019

I love the glow of the garden after the rain! However, there were times I thought it would never stop! At any rate, when the sun came out yesterday, every plant was happy.

I can’t believe it: I’ve finally (Well, nothing’s ever final!) finished planting the focal garden bed in the front yard! Yay! Knowing the rain was coming, again, I hustled to round up plants that I had been waiting on to come in at the nurseries. Some are still a bit dormant, like the Agastache and Achillea plants, but waking up in the ground is not so bad, especially with a jump start of compost. In addition to new nursery plants and ones already in the bed, I transplanted ones from other areas. Plant species are planted in threes, some are native and some are non native, some are herbs and edible plants. Of these, there are early, mid and late bloomers, all to be more accommodating to pollinators.

The irrigation is totally wonky, and that’s why I was glad to get the rain. I’ll have to reroute the lines, fix a few kinks and replace drippers and drip hose before turning it on. Even then, I’m sure there will be a few “geysers”!

In the backyard, radishes, carrots, artichokes and greens are doing “their thing.” We harvested some small radishes for our salad and, because they were small and tender, we ate the whole radish, greens and all. Heavenly morsels of sweetness! For such a little vegetable, radishes are packed with health and nutrition. Being from the cruciferous family of vegetables (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, etc.), they are filled with antioxidants and report to have significant levels of Vitamins A and C, potassium and phytonutrients.

Is there a plant as intriguing and beautiful as red chard? For me it’s as ornamental as it is delicious. Picking them young as salad greens is how we enjoy them in the winter. Now that days are longer, chard grows large and make very good sautés. Usually I pick the leaves off the stem and chop the stems to be part of the sauté, or I give them to the chicks. Same with kale: the stems are sometimes too chewy, but once they are cut off and chopped up, they become a feast of all feasts for the chicks as well.

Most of the seedlings I seeded have been transplanted to a bigger pot and placed in the greenhouse which climbed to 80 degrees yesterday. It’s still pretty cold at night but they survived their first night just fine.

If it sounds like I have been “busting buns,” I have! As said before, busy time of the year!

Have a good week!

“I like spring anywhere, but if I could choose, I’d always greet it in a garden.”

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