UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

University of California

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

April in Sonoma County

Question: Pandemic?
Answer: Victory Garden

During the Coronavirus pandemic, we all are searching for ways to cope. As gardeners, we may consider emulating what gardeners (who did not go overseas) did during the past two world wars, plant a Victory Garden. Let's apply our skills and passion. Sonoma County Master Gardener Sue Lovelace tells us more.

Food Gardening

Lemongrass!

Few things are as nice as being able to go into your garden and clip fresh herbs or pick fresh fruits or veggies. Doubly nice if the plant is not only useful in the kitchen, but pretty in your garden. Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) provides both of these. In Sonoma's Mediterranean climate, lemongrass will flourish if you follow a few basics requirements: fast draining soil, water and sunshine. Read more.

COVID-19 Update

In an abundance of caution during the COVID-19 pandemic and the recommendations of various public health agencies we will be adjusting our services accordingly:

All events, including library talks, through end of April are canceled.
We are not currently accepting walk-ins or specimen drop offs at our Master Gardener Information Desk at the UCCE Sonoma office. Please send an email with your inquiry to mgsonoma@ucanr.edu. Our Information Desk team is checking the emails regularly and will respond to your questions as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience during this time. We will inform you when the library talks resume.

Interesting new posts are frequently added to our Facebook Page. Check it out! And please check our Food Gardening page, and Food Gardening Articles for help in starting, upgrading, or extending a veggie garden.

BBY 2020 is Canceled
Sonoma County Master Gardeners’ plans for a Bloomin’ Backyards tour of six Petaluma gardens on May 17, 2020 have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its unknown progression. More information about how to proceed is being developed and will be posted here as it becomes available.

Protect Our Birds: Bird Nesting Season is Here

Bird nesting season is March 1 to August 31. It is important not to clear brush and trees during this period in order to protect our bird populations. University of California Master Gardeners of Sonoma County, the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Habitat Corridor Project, have joined forces to produce an excellent and informative article on the nesting habits of some of our favorite native birds that might visit your property, and how to manage fire safety requirements while protecting the birds."

Ask a Master Gardener
Questions and Answers from the Helpline

Watch to Learn What Master Gardeners Do

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.

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

Harvest for the Hungry Plant Sale
Good news! Harvest for the Hungry is still having a plant sale. However, the format will be different to make sure are all safe.
The virus situation is changing rapidly. Harvest for the Hungry will post more information on their website and facebook page in early April.

All workshop events through end of April are canceled

Workshop Calendar

Event Name	Date
CANCELED: Pollinators and Some of Their Favorite Plants - Cloverdale	4/11/2020
CANCELED: Pruning and Caring for Fruit Trees - RP/Cotati	4/11/2020
CANCELED: Problem Solving in Your Veggie Garden - Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa	4/18/2020

View More Events

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

Sundays with Sue

By SCMG Sue Lovelace
April 5, 2020

The gang’s all here! No, I’m not violating the “social distancing” or even the “shelter in place” mandates in regards to COVID-19! I’m talking about the bees: the bumble bees, carpenter bees, other native bees and even the honey bees!

To explain, I was out in my veggie garden when a fat bumble bee flew right by my head going for the flowers of a broccoli plant. I was so excited, as I am a bumblebee groupie!! I’m serious. I love bumblebees! I love watching these over-weight, kind of clumsy, gentle creatures, go from one flower to another. Anatomically, they have the ability to sting, but unless they, or their nest, is threatened, they simply do their sweet, unaggressive, buzz pollinating, tasks throughout the garden. The funny thing is that the carpenter bees do not have the ability to sting, but they threaten as if they do!

The bumblebee will go to many different kinds of flowers to gather pollen. I’ve often said that letting some of your winter vegetables like kale, mustard, arrugula, and broccoli go to flower, is a good plan for bringing pollinators and beneficial insects to one’s food garden. If you grow Fava beans, the flowers are bumblebee magnets in addition to any and every kind of bug in the world. Honestly, it’s like a living laboratory watching all the creatures that mingle on a fava bean plant! It’s one of the first plants where we notice an abundance of aphids. Closely following their arrival, are the lady beetles who take care of business!! If you grow for a cover crop, save a few plants so that you can enjoy the show!

It seems that once the borage blooms in my garden, the bumblebees, and the carpenter bees, magically appear. This year, I have an abundance of borage. To those that have grown borage, having an abundance is an understatement, as it readily self-seeds and shows up everywhere! After losing several of my pollinator plants to gophers, I am letting borage have its way for awhile to bring in the pollinators. Borage flowers are an amazing, periwinkle blue, as well as being edible. They look great next to other purples blooming in the garden like, Cranesbill geranium, verbena (Verbena lilacina ‘de la mina’, a California native), rosemary and lavender. Borage is thought to be a great companion plant and also good for the soil with bringing up nutrients deep in the soil with its long taproot. Many people use borage as a beneficial mulch. By the way, California and European (‘Flanders’) poppies are ready to explode throughout the front and back yards joining the borage in keeping the gardens abuzz!

Besides the manzanita (Arctostaphylos), more early blooming stars are the native Ceanothus plants which are blooming like crazy right now. This is so timely to attracting pollinators of our fruit trees. I watched as all sorts of bees, so loaded with pollen, jumped from flowering perennials and shrubs to the trees. Isn’t it great to know these little insects “have our backs”?

Hummingbirds have also arrived in numbers, going to the abutilons, the cupheas, the wisteria, the loropedalums, and even the succulents flowering now. We have a “hummingbird garden” at the side of our house, and I’m thinking they like the shelter there. However, the feeders that I keep filled with sugar water on the front porch are getting a lot of action, too.

Polyculture (growing many different species and varieties of plant families that interact with each other, with supporting organisms, and with insects, birds and other wildlife) can assure that the quality of one’s garden and the environment, as a whole, will be a strong, supportive, protective force. This concept, polyculture, mimics the balance of nature. The real bonus is that we can watch it happen in our own garden and trust that this balance will out-weigh the need for pesticides or chemical fertilizers which endangers our soils, our air and our water supply. No time like the present shelter-in-place to get outside and witness it ourselves.

One more “shout out”: To the children in the neighborhood who chalked up driveways and sidewalks with loving messages of support and with pictures of rainbows and hearts, I say “Thank you!” Have a safe week, everyone.

“The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.” Elizabeth Lawrence

Master Gardeners in Print

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

How to get roses ready for winter and other helpful tips 12/20/2019

How to care for hanging planters over the winter 12/6/2019

Webmasters: Kim Roche, Stan Pawlak

Website Editor: Penny Fink

Food Gardening Editor: Open, please apply!

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