This article originally appeared in the Butte Rose Society’s October 2011 Newsletter. Love roses? The Butte Rose Society’s annual rose show - A Festival of Roses is Oct. 22, 2011 from 1 - 4 pm at Our Divine Savior Social Hall, 566 East Lassen Avenue in Chico. Admission is free. For more information contact: www.butte-rosesociety.org.

Roses are like people – some just have nicer hips than others. Some have pretty faces, some have great legs, great shoulders. Some have good hips - especially in October. And I like good hips. To me, they speak of strength, fertility and beauty. (more…)

“Eat your weeds,” is a comment you might hear in conversation with regional author Alicia Funk. This struck me as humorously ironic given that last week’s interview taught us more about ways to effectively eradicate troublesome weeds, but never did we consider eating them. This week, Alicia Funk suggests just that: we should eat our weeds. (In most cases the plants to which she is referring are not truly weeds, rather edible and medicinal native plants that thrive in our region.) Photo: Bright red ripe toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries ripe in winter. “Living Wild” includes cultivation information for toyon as well as a recipe for a tasty toyon cider.

Alicia, who lives and gardens in Nevada City, off the grid with her husband and their three children, is the co-author most recently of “Living Wild: Gardening, Cooking and Healing with the Native Plants of the Sierra Nevada,” (2011, Flicker Press. Available locally at Lyon Books in Chico). She believes passionately that if we as families, as gardeners, as foodies, indeed, as a culture, are going to move sustainability to the next level, we need to learn to engage with our local landscapes more intimately and more knowledgeably. “With our children watching some sort of screen for an average of five hours a day or more, this need to re-acquaint ourselves with the outdoors is ever more urgent,” she insists. She founded the LivingWild.org project as way to open and encourage conversation and sharing of knowledge and experience about engaging with the great outdoors around us.

Sustainability is not just about eating food labeled organic, or about eating locally grown food, even, Alicia expressed to me by phone recently. Indigenous people have lived - and thrived - in these very environments of the North State for thousands of years, they have learned how to responsibly and thoughtfully use the many native plants around us for food, for shelter, for medicine, for art. If we want to take sustainability and healthy living to a higher level, we can learn how to as well. And Northern California is just the place to take this step, Alicia pointed out, as we are blessed with more edible and healthful native plants than almost anywhere on the planet: “When I first moved to the North State in 2004, I realized that many of the native plants I was seeing were the sources of the nutritional and medicinal supplements I had studied.” Photo: The un-ripe, green berries of manzanita. According to studies conducted by Alicia, when ripe, manzanita berries, which are naturally sweet, also contain three times the antioxidants of blueberries.

Alicia Goldberg Funk first learned plant-based medicine in 1990 from an indigenous grandmother in Ecuador’s rainforest. Upon returning the US, she lived and worked in the Santa Cruz area where she studied with leaders in the field, Christopher Hobbs and Michael McGuffin, at the American School of Herbalism. Her subsequent research has focused on the science behind plants and their medicinal or nutritional uses. Safety is a primary focus to her research as is opening a conversation between the herbal world and the medical world. She is the editor of six books, including “The Botanical Safety Handbook,” “Herbal Medicine-The Expanded Commission E Monographs” and “The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs.” Her passion is creating everyday wellness for individuals and the planet. Photo: A selection of acorns, which Alicia likes to call oak nuts, emphasizing their edibility. In her workshops, she teaches how to make oak nut flour.

Alicia Funk in Chico - October 1st, 2011

Alicia will be teaching a class entitled “Native Plants for Food and Health” on Saturday October 1st from 9 am - 12 noon for the Friends of the Chico State Herbarium’s workshop series. The fee for the class is $45; to register please contact the CSU, Chico Biology office at (530) 898-5356 or jbraden@csuchico.edu.

Class Description:

Connect with our local landscape by learning how native plants provided a sustainable source of food and medicine for local inhabitants for thousands of years.
Learn how to prepare and enjoy backyard fall and winter edibles such as Oak Nut (acorn) Bliss Bars, Beyond Cranberry Wild Berry Sauce, and Toyon Cider.
Discover how native plants such as Yerba Santa and California Bay can help address common winter colds.
Take a walk outdoors to identify the uses of plants in the field.
Workshop Outline Food: Backyard Edibles for Fall
• Prepare and taste Oak Nuts (acorns), Madrone berries, and Toyon berries.
Health: Natives for the Common Cold • Integrate Yerba Santa and California Bay into the natural medicine cabinet for common winter colds and flu.
Field Walk: Exploring Nature with Ethnobotanical Eyes (indoor slideshow if raining)
• Identify plants in nature and learn common uses.

Please register in advance; class size is limited to 20 participants (class cancelled with- out a minimum of 8 participants). For more information about workshop content please contact Alicia Funk at alicia@livingwild.org.

Following the morning class at the Chico State Herbarium, Alicia will be at the Gateway Science Museum for a hands-on activity for school-aged children and a book signing:

Plant Adventures: 1-3 pm
Gateway Science Museum on the Esplanade in Chico
Cost: free with admission

Have you tasted manzanita sugar or an oak nut (acorn) bliss bar? Our local landscape offers many plants that are useful for food and health and these plants sustained indigenous people without grocery stores for thousands of years. Come explore native plants through a treasure hunt, create a native plant journal and learn to turn acorns into delicious desserts.

Join visiting instructor and author, Alicia Funk, in an interactive program for all ages:

• Go on a treasure hunt to identify native plants.

• Learn to turn acorns into food.

• Create a native plant journal

• Taste wild food desserts and drinks.

• Signed copies of the new local guidebook: Living Wild—Gardening, Cooking and Healing with Native Plants of the Sierra Nevada, will be available for purchase.

Photo: The temptingly plump hips of California rose (Rosa californica). “Living Wild” includes cultivation information for this rose as well as recipes for Rose Hip Tea and Rose Hip Jelly.

More of my environmental writing can be found in the Chico News & Review, and Pacific Horticulture. Follow Jewellgarden.com/In a North State Garden on Facebook.

To submit plant/gardening related events/classes to the Jewellgarden.com on-line Calendar of Regional Gardening Events, send the pertinent information to me at: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com

Did you know I send out a weekly email with information about upcoming topics and gardening related events in the North State region? If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send an email to Jennifer@jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California. Made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico, In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In a North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is simultaneously universal and positively North State.

Gardening (and writing) in the heat of mid-August, it is sometimes difficult to pull my view up from the moment in order to plan for the future, but August is a good time to be planning and planting for the winter garden. It’s a good time to have soil prepared and to direct seed beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, lettuce, white onion, white potatoes and turnips. Photo: The summer garden may be like a small jungle and you may be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucumbers like a mad person - don’t forget to plan and plant ahead for fall and winter crops.

It’s also a good time to be thinking about bulbs. If you are interested in planting more bulbs this fall, now is a good time to place orders from seed and/or bulb sources or growers in your area or at your local farmers market. Ordering now will help to ensure you get the best selections even though you won’t want to plant most bulbs out until October or November. This is true of ornamental bulbs like narcissus and alliums as well as for edible bulbs like GARLIC. (more…)

The first real winter storm and its life-renewing precipitation has now visited our region – most likely bringing some inconvenience, but also much blessing as the season turns on its cycle from the fullness of fall to the peaceful spareness of winter.

Most gardeners I know have been slowly getting ready for winter – top dressing their borders and beds with a good compost or mulch – chopped up oak leaves and grass clippings are readily available at my house. Putting these amendments down now helps to insulate your plants from the coming temperature and humidity fluctuations, but also allows the winter rains to slowly leach the nutrients out of them and down into your soil, reducing the amount of digging in you have to do come spring. I recently attended a talk on preparing your garden for winter given by Barbara Battaglia of Mendons Nursery in Paradise and she recommend applying a 0-10-10 fertilizer to just about all of your plants other than citrus right now as well. This level of fertilizer will give the root systems of your plants a boost for their winter work beneath the soil without adding any nitrogen, which would promote unwanted green growth. Pay attention to frost warnings and protect tender plants - many people recommend twinkle lights on citrus, frost cloth or moving what you can under house eaves or into garages or outbuildings until the danger has passed.

As long as the soil is workable, we are still in a really good window for the planting of new perennials, shrubs and trees – and bare root season will be in full swing by January.

Cutting back of perennials and edibles that have run their course continues – although I like to leave seed heads on many of my herbaceous perennials for the birds to be able to snack on weather permitting. My hummingbird feeder is now up and active again as many of my hummingbird nectar plants have finished their bloom time, but Anna’s Hummingbird our overwintering resident – is still hungry. Watching a busy hummingbird at the feeder outside of my kitchen window is one of many gifts of the season.

Gifts of the season are on most people’s mind this year. My favorites, you ask? You just can’t go wrong with something for your favorite gardeners from one of their local bookstores, cooking stores or independent nurseries. A gift certificate, a gift subscription to a gardening publication or gardening class series, some new gloves, a decadent gardening book. A big new garden pot that they would not buy for themselves. Even something as little as getting your favorite gardener’s garden clippers cleaned and sharpened for the coming season will go a long way to showing that you love them. Gifts of the season are the overriding theme in the calendar of gardening events this month - look through the events for wonderful opportunities to make gifts of your own, or consider Jewellgarden.com - all purchases of Jewellgarden’s lovely, botanically inspired and locally produced items support regional gardening and plant programming including the production of In a North State Garden. May the gifts of your season be those of peace, time with people and in places that remind you of the beauty of the world in which we live - and which we work and hope to make an even better place. Happy Holiday and Happy New Year to you wherever you may garden.

DECEMBER 2010

December 3 - Chico: Chico State Campus Tree Tours with Wes Dempsey and Gerry Ingco 10 am - 11:45 am. Meet in front of Bidwell Mansion in Chico, on the Esplanade for this informative walks to see and hear about the marvelous old trees on the mansion grounds and adjacent university campus. Over 200 species of woody plants. Many of these trees date back to the original landscaping by Bidwell in the late 1800s. Parking is free. Leaders: Wes Demspey: 530-342-2293; Gerry Ingco: 530-893-5123

December 4 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Wreath Making Workshop 9 AM - 12 noon. Floral designer and instructor Darlene Montgomery leads this creative and fun holiday workshop. Each participant will create their own fresh, full-size holiday wreath for the front door or family room. All materials provided. Space is limited to 15 participants (adults and youths 16 or older). Pre-registration required, call 242-3108 to pre-register. Members $35, nonmembers $40 Turtle Bay Visitor Center – JSS Classroom More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 4 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Charlie Rabbit and Friends 9:30 AM. An interactive program in the Gardens (or Greenhouse in rain) for children, their siblings, parents and grandparents. Free with Park or Garden admission. Meet at West Garden Entrance. Take N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take the right fork. Parking lot and entrance are on the left. More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 4 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Planting Day: Woodson Bridge Valley Oak Restoration 9:30 am Meet at Chico Park & Ride (Hwy 32 & 99) or at 10 am the kiosk of Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area. Bring Lunch, Water and wear gardening gear. We will be planting Valley Oak acorns in a new riparian area on the Sacramento River presently plagued with invasives. Nature walk through the new natural area included. Leaders, Jim Dempsey 530-846-1435 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

December 4 - Redding: Wyntour Gardens: WYNTOUR WONDERLAND ANNUAL HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE You are cordially invited to attend Wyntour Gardens’ Annual Holiday Open House celebration to kick off the Holiday Season. Enjoy a nice cup of warm apple cider and munch on delicious goodies, while strolling through their beautiful holiday displays, created with a different theme every year by George & Carol Winter and their elves (staff). Make this one of your Holiday Traditions! Open 8am to 5pm. 8026 Airport Rd Redding, CA 96002-9445 (530) 365-2256

December 4 - Redding: Wyntour Gardens: KIDS HOLIDAY PLANTING PARTY 10am to Noon: Join our annual KIDS HOLIDAY PLANTING PARTY, during our Annual HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE. This has become a Holiday Tradition for many of our families. Kids get to plant a holiday basket of pansies to take home and enjoy for the holidays or give as a gift. While you are here, check out our displays and enjoy a goodie or two. This is a great way to kick-off the Holiday Season and fun for the whole family! 8026 Airport Rd Redding, CA 96002-9445 (530) 365-2256

December 4 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: California’s Native Plants 11 a.m., Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, Old Davis Road, UC Davis. Tour the Mary Wattis Brown Garden focusing on plants native to California’s Central Valley. Learn more about these plants and why they thrive in our regional ecosystem. The free tour will leave from the Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, across from the Mondavi Center on Old Davis Road on the UC Davis campus. Free parking is available in Visitor Lot 1 and the parking garage south of the Mondavi Center. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 5 - Redding: Shasta Chapter Cal Native Plant Society: Mushroom Field Trip 9 AM City Hall Parking Lot. Join Susan Libonati, botanist and mycologist, and Ken Kilborn for a mushroom outing. The destination will be announced when we meet; we may drive half an hour out of Redding. You may bring along your own mushrooms for identification. Meet at 9 AM in the Redding City Hall parking lot, on the back (south) side of the building, next to Parkview Avenue. The City Hall is located at 777 Cypress Avenue—just west of the Cypress Avenue bridge over the Sacramento River. Bring lunch and water, and be prepared for cold, rain, and no facilities. Call Susan (347-4654) or Ken (221-2339) for details.

December 5 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Centerville Flume 9 am Meet at Chico Park & Ride (Hwys 32 & 99). Bring lunch, water, insect/sun protection, and money for ride sharing. Wear hiking gear. On our annual stroll along one of Chico’s most delightful walks, we will see the last of summer’s blooms (lessingia, snapdragon, camporum) and the first of the winter ones (manzanita, bay, mistletoe). We have recorded more than 24 species in bloom along here over the past years. Leaders, Gerry Ingco 530-893-5123 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

December 5 - Chico: The Plant Barn: Wreath Making Workshop 1 pm and 3 pm. Reservations required and filling fast - make this your annual holiday tradition - fun, fun, fun with your favorite and festive flower floozy elves. 406 Entler Avenue. Chico, CA 95928-9579 (530) 345-3121 www.theplantbarn.com.

December 8 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Walk With Warren 12 p.m., Gazebo, Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum Join Arboretum Superintendent Emeritus Warren Roberts for a lunchtime stroll in the UC Davis Arboretum on Wednesday, November 10. Enjoy the crisp fall weather, explore the pleasures of the autumn garden, and get a little exercise. Meet at noon at the Gazebo, on Garrod Drive on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the tour. Parking is available for $6 in Visitor Lot 55. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 9 - 11 – Red Bluff: Red Bluff Garden Club Holiday Scholarship Boutique 216 Pine Street, the Victorian on the corner of Pine and Rio. The wreaths, swags, center pieces, table & mantel runners, are made from fresh pine, fir, redwood, cedar, arborvitae, holly, magnolia, laurel, bay and other plant material that will last the season. All of the fresh plant material provides the smells of Christmas even if an artificial tree is being used. Beautiful ribbons, cones, berries and other colorful dry material are used to decorate the wreaths and table designs. These handmade wreaths are priced two to three times less than the wreaths which can be purchased from catalogs and the internet because the greens come from the gardens of members and willing friends and neighbors. If you have a tree or shrub that needs to be pruned and you would like to contribute the pruned plant material for the wreaths call 527-4578. For more info: www.redbluffgardenclub.com

December 11 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Family 2nd Saturday - Holiday Festival 10:30 AM - 3:30. Get in the holiday spirit and create holiday-themed crafts or a gift for someone special while enjoying a festive atmosphere! Spread the holiday cheer and make your own peanut butter pinecone bird feeder. A merry event for the whole family. Free with Park admission. Paul Bunyan’s Forest Camp More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 11 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Why Do Some Trees Lose Their Leaves? 11 a.m., Gazebo, Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum. A look at the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees in the Shields Oak Grove. The tour will leave at 11:00 a.m. from the Gazebo, on Garrod Drive on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the tour, and free parking is available along Garrod Drive and in Visitor Lot 55. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

December 11 - Chico: Chico Horticulture Society: Holiday Greens Workshop 2 - 4 pm. Come make festive wreaths, swags and centerpieces for gifts or your own holiday home! All materials provided, bring your own container for special centerpiece arrangements. $12 fee for materials. Chico Library 1108 Sherman Avenue in Chico. Register by calling Avis Barrett at: 530-343-6738. More info: email President Jon Bennet at: ChicoGardenClub@yahoo.com.

December 11 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Winter in the Woods - Members Only Holiday Festival 5 - 7 pm. Get in the holiday spirit and Come enjoy a members-only evening of holiday cheer and tasteful shopping! • Take a stroll down the twinkling lights of the boardwalk • Get first choice of special Holiday merchandise • Listen to Holiday music • Meet Santa • MEMBERS RECEIVE 20% OFF all Museum Store merchandise this evening only • Children’s activities provided Free Members’ Only event Museum Store More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 19 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Lookout Tree Take Down Party 1 - 4 pm. Delight in this whimsical and imaginative willow sculpture by internationally acclaimed environmental artist Patrick Dougherty. Some art is meant to be with us for only a short time. Help us celebrate the end of winter and the end of this beautiful sculpture at a special Lookout Tree “take down” party. Bring your garden gloves. Free with Park or Garden admission. Turtle Bay’s McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens - Carl & Leah’s Meadow. From N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take right fork. Parking lot and entrance are on the left. More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

December 21 - Full Moon/Winter Solstice

January 1 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Upper Bidwell Park Banana Belt Hike 10 am Meet at Horsehoe Lake Parking lot in Upper Bidwell Park. Bring lunch, water, insect/sun/cold/rain protection. Wear hiking gear. Start the new year right with a brisk scramble up the North Ridge up above Horseshoe Lake. On windless, cloudless nights, it can be 10 degrees warmer up there due to temperature inversion, hence we often see the first of the new year’s blooms. Leaders, Gerry Ingco 530-893-5123 and Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

January 2 – Butte Rose Society: Rose Pruning Demonstration 10 am Stansbury House, 307 W. 5th Street Chico. A yearly, fun and educational event teaching rose lovers of all skill levels how best to prune all manner of roses. For more information, contact President Neva Youngs at 530-588-0158. www.butte-rose-society.org.

January 10 -11 – Chico: Northern California Botanists 2011 Symposium California State University Chico, BMU Auditorium. Two days of fascinating presentations and posters of all manner of topic related to botany - from the very general to the highly technical. For Program and Registration Information got to www.norcalbotanists.org

January 15 – Mills Orchard: Pruning Your Home Orchard 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., cost is $20.00. Please wear warm clothing and be prepared to do hands on pruning. If you have pruning loppers, hand shears, bring them. Gloves recommended. Participants will learn how to plant/train the new fruit tree and how to prune established trees. Taught by Pam Geisel, University of California Master Gardener Program Coordinator & Bill Krueger; Pomologist for UC Cooperative Extension. To register, please go to: http://ceglenn.ucdavis.edu/OrchardCrops_MainPage/ Or call (530) 865-1107. The class will be held at 7782 County Road 16; Mills Orchard, CA (located between Hamilton City and Orland, CA off of Highway 32). Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

January 16 – Chico: 1st in a series of 10 Chico Organic Gardening Class: 1:30 - 3:30 Chico Grange. Whether you are a novice or have gardened for many years, you will enjoy the presentations from experts in growing delicious and beautiful vegetables, fruits, eggs, and more. For more information or to register, go to: http://valleyoakmagazine.com/about/monthly-publication/organic-gardening/chico-organic-gardening-society-cogs/chico-organic-gardening-class.

January 27 -30 – Chico: Snowgoose Festival - Experience the Wonders of the Pacific Flyway Over 50 guided field trips and workshops; Junior Naturalist Activities; Art Exhibition & Reception and Avenue 9 Gallery & The Artistry; Banquet and Silent Auction - John Muir Law, Naturalist; Exhibits and Vendors Galore! Registration begins in early December: www.snowgoosefestival.org; 530-345-1865; info@snowgoosefestival.org

In the Garden: note card, journal and 2011 calendar collections. Support In a North State Garden AND Delight the gardeners, readers, writers and food lovers in your life with thoughtful, sophisticated and artfully unique note card sets, journals and calendars from Jewellgarden.com. Dedicated to the art, craft and science of gardening, produced wholly in the North State on recycled papers, Choose from Holiday Cards (shown above) Natives in the Garden, Edibles in the Garden and the NEW Seed Series. Available now on-line or at local fine shops near you. All of Jewellgarden.com’s cards are printed in Chico by Quadco printing using recycled paper and vegetable-based ink in many cases.

Follow Jewellgarden.com/In a North State Garden on Facebook - become a fan today!

To submit plant/gardening related events/classes to the Jewellgarden.com on-line Calendar of Regional Gardening Events, send the pertinent information to me at: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com

Did you know I send out a weekly email with information about upcoming topics and gardening related events? If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send an email to Jennifer@jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California and made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico. In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In a North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is simultaneously universal and positively North State.

In the wind and rain of the last week, I came down with quite a cold/flu and have been suffering the effects for several achey days. So it seems fortuitous and right somehow that this week’s In a North State Garden focuses on garlic - that icon of health and fortitude, that banisher of bad spirits and bad germs (to say nothing of vampires). Specifically, this week’s piece profiles Kalan and Cam Redwood of Redwood Seeds, which, among many other interesting seed crops, grow 14 different varieties of garlic locally here in the North State. ‘Grown locally’ being a fact which only strengthens the power and efficacy of any fruit, vegetable or medicinal herb’s beneficial properties, due in part to increased freshness. Photo: Allium sativum sativuum ‘Silver White’ a common, softneck variety of garlic. (more…)

This epic wet weather in the North State over the past few weeks has me holed up and dreaming about my spring planting of seeds. I am working on expanding my raised beds for vegetables from the existing two to a productive six beds - each about 3 feet wide, 12 feet long and 2 feet deep. Photo: Raised beds framed in cedar in an enclosed and formal home garden.
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Planting a vegetable garden just seems to go along with spring, doesn’t it? Like an instinctive and seasonal rite of passage. But, says George Winter, owner of Wyntour Gardens in Redding and the Red Bluff Garden Center in Red Bluff, “if you want a vegetable garden, the fall and winter garden is generally easier and less maintenance than the spring and summer one. Time seems more measured in the fall garden - not so hectic,” in George’s opinion. “Temperatures will still be hot when you plant your garden planted in late August early September, but they cool off pretty quickly so you won’t be working in blazing heat; the lower temperatures also mean fewer bugs, and of course your chances of rainfall are much better. So if we have a normal fall and winter, you will be watering your fall-planted garden far less than you had to water your spring-planted one. Planning and planting a fall and winter vegetable garden is very similar to planting your spring/summer one, except the odds are stacked in your favor, so your chances of success are very good.”

Now, of course there are some caveats. You are unlikely to get fabulous tomatoes or cucumbers from your fall planted garden unless you have a greenhouse or other pretty serious protection from cooling temperatures. But most fall-planted crops enjoy the North State’s warm August and September weather for germination and getting established followed by the cooling nights and days of October and November for steady growth. Most fall planted crops can withstand the light frosts of late October and early November fairly well and in many cases a light frost will actually improve the health, vigor and taste of certain crops - like chards and beets.
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Lynette Gooch loves lavender. All kinds of lavender for all kinds of reasons. In the United Kingdom the gardening world has things known as National Collections, wherein when a specific garden has more species or varieties of any one kind of plant than any other garden, they can become designated a National Collection. Private gardens and gardeners are as likely to hold National Collections as larger public botanic gardens. In the United States, we do not have such a scheme, but if we did, Lynette Gooch and her husband Richard might well hold the National Collection of lavender with their 207 different named varieties of lavender at the display gardens in Whitmore: Tuscan Heights Lavender Gardens.

Grown as a culinary and medicinal herb throughout the world, throughout time, lavender (Lavandula) is a genus comprising multiple species and hybrids. Species of the genus originate from the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, and the genus thrives in the Mediterranean climate of the North State.

The Tuscan Heights’ story started in 1999 when Lynette and Richard, farmer/gardeners at heart, were looking around the North State with possible re-location in mind. Living in Roseville at the time, Lynette is from Calaveras County originally and of strong Italian descent, with fond memories of the large family production garden she grew up helping to tend with her father. “Of five kids, I seem to have been the most gardening inclined, which I think has helped me out here!” she tells me the warm summer day I toured around the gardens. “We were about to leave and head home when Richard by chance picked a local discount classified paper and happened to read about land in Whitmore. ‘Where’s Whitmore?’, he asked me. So we drove up, I got out of the car, looked around, breathed deeply, kicked at the dirt with my foot and said - This is it. Let’s write the check.” Although the sloping land was covered in poison oak, manzanita and blackberry, Lynette knew she was home. The Fern Fire had devastated the area 12 years earlier, and Lynette could see that the soil had begun to recover and was ready for any garden she might want to grow. Neither she, the land nor Richard knew just what that garden would become.
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“Food, food, food - it all comes back to food. Being able to grow your own food, understanding where your food comes from and having access to good, healthy food.” Max Kee tells me this as we walk around a two acre plot of land on which he and his fellow workers are cultivating vegetable and herb crops for a second year. Max, and fellow-CSU Chico classmates and friends Dresden Holden, Francine Stuelpnagel and Lee Callendar founded the Chico-based group known as GRUB in 2007. GRUB stands for Growing Resourcefully Uniting Bellies.

“It started with a bike ride…Well, it started with three of us wanting to attend a sustainability conference in Santa Barbara in the spring of 2007 and realizing that it would be counter-productive to drive a car to a sustainability conference. So we decided to ride - and on the way we talked a lot about what it meant to be sustainable and how best to be engaged in solution-oriented sustainability. And as we talked we kept coming back to food.” Max is walking me through fields where irrigation lines are being set up by two people, while others are seeding llong straight furrows and still another comes along behind the seeders and top-dresses with a layer of rich, dark fine compost. The sun is already warm early on this May morning and the next field over is already producing strawberries, while another field has asparagus plants now gone to fern. “When we got to the conference, Francine and Dresden attended a workshop led by a woman from San Jose, who had started a cooperative vegtable and fruit sharing program by cooperatively gardening in people’s unused back-yard space. Francine and Dresden were so fired-up, that our bike ride home from the conference was all about how to start such a cooperative of our own.” I should note that while Francine and Lee, a married couple, had always intended to start their own vegetable garden, none of GRUB’s founding four had any gardening or agricultural background or education to speak of. I should also note the importance of the bike ride in the inception and evolution of GRUB: it all started with a bike ride and all aspects of GRUB continue through bike rides as the primary sources of transportation, beasts of burden and, of course, fun.
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David Grau is a gardener; he is also an avid supporter of sustainability, community and local food production. He has worn many hats – gardening hats and otherwise – in his life. In the late 70s and 80s, he was an organic Market Gardener selling and a co-founder of the Chico Saturday morning Farmer’s Market. His primary career for many years has been as a licensed marriage and family counselor. But he has always loved to garden and always loved the look, feel, taste and concept of locally grown food and the community that produces it. In 1990, he even produced an improved version of a popular market garden tool – the wheel hoe, which he sells through his company Valley Oak Tool in Chico. He himself has re-landscaped his urban Chico home so that its front and back yard lawns are now mulched over and edible gardening is underway in every corner: row crops of lettuces and peas run the depth of the back yard. Citrus and fruit trees are carefully enclosed in wire frames for easy covering. And all of that is greatly interesting to me as a garden lover. But, what I really want to highlight about David’s gardening life is his current project as founder/developer of/coordinator of several impressive series of organic gardening classes in Chico. Photo: David Grau in his home garden, demonstrating the ease of his wheel-hoe.

David was first inspired to develop organic gardening classes when he was living in Marin County for 18 months between 2007 and 2008. There, he attended “ a series, sort of like what I have developed here,” he says. “I really enjoyed them and thought that Chico had all the resources and the need for something similar.” So he returned to Chico and put together his first series of classes, which were held at the Chico Grange almost every Sunday from January through mid-March. A second series is beginning in April and runs through June and will also be held at the Chico Grange on Sundays.
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