“A Lilac bush and an Apple tree
Were standing in the woods,
Out on the hill above the town,
Where once a farmhouse stood.

In the winter the leaves are bare
And no one sees the signs
Of a house that stood and a garden that grew
And life in another time.”

Kate Wolf - The Lilac and the Apple Tree

The North State has many rich legacies. One of them is heirloom apples. Since 2006, Carol Fall, Program Representative for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Trinity, has been working year-round trying to trace and document this very legacy for the Trinity Heritage Orchard Project (THOP). Photo: An heritage apple tree in full production at the Steiner Flats orchard site in Trinity County. (more…)

Pam Geisel is the Statewide Master Gardener Coordinator for the University of California, and for the last few years she has lived and gardened in Hamilton City, a small scenic town in Glenn County. Being a North Stater herself now, she leads the charge in wanting to see more Master Gardener events and opportunities in the counties of the North State. She is very excited about the many Master Gardener programs now available in many North State counties - including Shasta, Butte and Glenn. While Shasta College has been a host of the UC Master Gardener program since 2003, Butte and Glenn counties have only more recently developed their programs. Trinity and Tehama counties are served by the Shasta County program, but Trinity County Cooperative Extension is hoping in 2012 to start their own program in Weaverville under the direction of UC Copperative Extension representative Carol Fall.

“The Master Gardener program has hosted many conferences around the state, and it was time to host one in the North State,” Pam says in our recorded interview this weekend on In a North State Garden. “While many of our educational conferences are for Master Gardeners only, we really wanted this one - with it’s wide topic range and wonderful panel of speakers - to be open to the public as well. We’re really excited to be hosting it! So many gardeners - new and experienced are hungry for this kind of information!” Listen to the full interview this Saturday Sept 3rd at 7:34 am and Sunday Sept 4th at 8:34 a.m. on Northstate Public Radio (KCHO 91.7 fm Chico/KFPR 88.9 fm Redding).

The details for the California Smart Landscaping Conference details are below and are taken from the conference website: http://ucanr.org/sites/casmartlandscape/, where you are also able to register on-line.

Event Details: California Smart Landscaping Conference
Date: October 21, 2011
Time: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sponsor: Statewide Master Gardener Program
Location: Masonic Family Center 1110 West East Avenue Chico, CA 95926

The University of California’s Statewide Master Gardener Program is excited to host the California Smart Landscaping Conference. Join us and learn how you can make some easy changes to your home landscape to become a smart and sustainable gardener. UC horticulture specialists, master gardeners and local landscape experts will be sharing their knowledge about attracting bees to your garden, water conservation, lawn alternatives, composting and much more! The keynote speaker is Rosalind Creasy, the esteemed author of Edible Landscaping. Rosalind’s presentation will focus on edible plants and maximizing your garden’s potential. The conference is for both gardening enthusiasts and for master gardener volunteers. Therefore, please share the details about the conference to both fellow and non-master gardeners.

Cost is $35 for the public and $25 for UC master gardeners (lunch included).

Register Today! Space is limited and the deadline to register is Friday, September 30, 2011.

The day will kick off with introductory remarks and thoughts on Sustainable and Smart Landscaping Practices by Pam Geisel - a bubbly and energetic speaker if ever there was one - from 8:50 - 9:45.

Attendees will then break-up into smaller groups for four, one-hour long breakout sessions, with lunch being served between the second and third sessions. The four break-out sessions include:

1A. Welcome Bees to your Garden - Shannon Mueller
2A. Irrigation Basics & New Approaches for Water Conservation - Loren Oki
3A. Backyard Vegetable Gardening - Sean Kriletich

1B. Natives Belong in your Garden - Jennifer Jewell
2B. Low Water Lawn Alternatives - Sandy Metzger
3B. Small Space Backyard Orchard - Chuck Ingels

Lunch

1C. Wise Water Use in your Sustainable Landscape and Vegetable Garden - Janet Hartin
2C. Right Plant, Right Place - James Sigala
3C. Composts & Compost Teas – Practical Practices - Kevin Marini

1D. All-Star Plants for Water Conservation - Ellen Zagory
2D. Beneficial Wildlife for your Garden - Scott Oneto
3D. Gardening for Less to the Landfill & Alternative Turf Varieties - Chuck Ingels

For biographies of each speaker and a description of their talk, please go to Speaker and Class details.

International garden writer, photographer, foodie and edible landscape design expert Rosalind Creasy will be the KEYNOTE SPEAKER, wrapping up the day’s offerings from 2:45 to 4:00 pm. Rosalind has a passion for beautiful vegetables and ecologically sensitive gardening. She began her career in horticulture in the 1970s as a landscape designer and restaurant consultant. By 1982 she had published her first book, “The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping,” which won the Garden Writers Association’s Quill and Trowel award, was chosen as a Book of the Month selection, and hailed by The Wall Street Journal as the best garden book of 1982. Considered a classic, it coined the term “Edible Landscaping,” now a part of the American vocabulary.

Rosalind shares her knowledge of gardening and cooking by writing, lecturing nationwide, appearing on television and radio shows, and working as a consultant to restaurants, growers, and seed companies. Rosalind’s recent publications include the ten book Edible Gardening series filled with beautiful photographs and recipes. The series was awarded a Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers in 2001. Her latest book is a complete update of The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, now called Edible Landscaping (2010). Recently, Rosalind was awarded a 2011 American Horticulture Society Book Award for Edible Landscaping. She resides in Northern California.

Rosalind’s Presentation: Edible Landscapes, Maximizing your Garden’s Potential
One of today’s gardening buzzwords is sustainable. You’d be hard put to find a more sustainable landscape style than an organically grown edible garden. Rosalind Creasy, pioneer in the field of edible landscaping, award-winning professional photographer, and author of the Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, will give a mouth-watering slide presentation. Among the topics she will cover are an A to Z of her recommended beautiful edible plants for home gardens, an overview of the wide variety of edible landscapes, as well as the principles of landscape design particular to edibles.

View the conference website for registration, speaker & class details: http://ucanr.org/sites/casmartlandscape/

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. It is 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.

I have said this before: October in the Northstate garden is a sigh of relief. A deep cleansing breath. Summer’s heat has mostly subsided, fall rains are returning, but the garden is not yet done. Its colors are deepening and mellow; October to me is about this seasonal artistry and seasonal surprise. (more…)

It is now officially Autumn and the length of our days diminishes a little with each circle of the planet. In the edible garden, harvesting has gone on for some time as spring crops moved over for summer crops and - lucky for us here in northern California - in many cases they have been replaced with fall crops, some of which are up and going strong, and our winter crops have gone in or are going in. Even if by “crop” I just mean a few rows of beets or carrots in the raised beds out back. Just as for the squirrels and the acorn woodpeckers, perhaps more than any other time of year, Autumn compels us to store up against the cold and the dark. It brings out our instinctive desire for some level of self-sufficiency. Photo: Cattle grazing, and honeybees working on the drive into Chaffin Family Farm - a model for the integrated family farm ideal - below Table Mountain in Oroville. (more…)

Ahhh, long hot days, coolish nights and the plump, fragrant flesh of tomatoes. August is the iridescent shimmer of sunshine along the edge of the scented foliage of exuberant tomato plants – running wild in the vegetable garden. It is the salads and soups and sandwiches made of this most anticipated summer fruit/vegetable. Photo: Fragrant tomato leaf glistening in the early morning sun.

Photo: The wide variety of tomatoes in my garden this year - seedlings of which I got from Brian Marshall and Nancy Heinzel of Sawmill Creek Farms in Paradise (marshall-n@sbcglobal.net) - if you ask me, the little purple red ones are the very best - Black Plum, they’re called. (more…)

Over the past few weeks I have had several in-depth conversations about plant names. Specifically, why I chose to include scientific plant names across the front of Jewellgarden’s new note cards and how these names are determined - why are they so confusing? All of these conversations got me thinking about plant names - what purpose they serve, why it is important to me to learn them and thus why they proudly embellishing my new cards. Photo: A black and white note card depicting the California black oak acorn (Quercus kelloggii) from my Natives in the Garden series. (more…)

Sometimes I stand at that magic circle near the center of my garden and admire the complex perennial borders overflowing with colorful, the glistening fruit and vegetables resplendent on their vines, and cooling sight of a lush well-managed lawn: I think to myself with pride - now this is a fine garden.

Of course - this grandiose moment of smug self-satisfaction lasts just a little longer than 30 seconds. It does not, I repeat: does not, take place anytime from 11 am to 5 pm any day in July or August. If it happens at all - which is a stretch of the imagination - it occurs fleetingly in the forgiving light of early May or possibly during an afternoon in mid-November. It certainly was not my sensation on returning to my garden after two weeks away in mid-July. Rather there I stood - feeling fairly defeated, surveying the damage wondering does a gardener live here??? I tried to remember the advice of a friend’s father: In the hot months you just have to hold on for dear life - the heat will subside and reasonable hope for easier gardening will return. Until then, water and wait. Photo: Vitex agnus-castus, or chaste tree, loves the heat.

Some bright spots exist: Black-eyed susans and crepe myrtles love this time of year, my cucumbers, tomatoes and basil all taste good, even if the plants themselves are not going to win any beauty contests, and the mid- to late-summer blooming bulbs – lilies and tuberoses – are coming on.

Few dedicated gardeners looking at their gardens in the harsh light of mid-day in August, feel confident they are doing everything right. The searing heat bleaches all color and vigor from us and our many of our plants. In this yearly crisis of confidence I think to myself: I should know so much more. Photo: Fragrant herbs such as these scented geraniums, like regular water but love the heat.

Maybe if I became a real Master Gardener I would know more? The good news is that despite a fear that the Shasta College Master Gardener Program was in danger of being cut due to the budget crisis, the program will run as usual this fall. Furthermore, the Butte County Master Gardener program is now accepting applications for their next training session. Call 530-538-7201 for an application package. Applications are due by mid-September, candidates will be chosen by mid-October and classes will begin Thursdays in January of 2010. Photo: Tuberose buds about to open into very fragrant blooms.

If you can’t commit to an entire Master Gardener Training program - we are a region blessed by botanic gardens, garden clubs, plant societies and good nurseries who do all they can to help us the home gardener continue to learn more about gardening. While many of these groups take a hiatus from regular meetings in mid-summer, they are all gearing back up and have great fall programs planned.

On August 15th the UC Davis Arboretum has a guided tour of California Native Plants for the garden, on August 22 The McConnell Arboretum and Gardens at Turtle Bay has a talk on drought resistant plantings with Horticulture Manager Lisa Endicott; The Red Bluff Garden Club resumes regular meetings on August 25th as does the Butte Rose Society. PLEASE NOTE: due to ongoing budget cuts, take careful note of where your gardening or plant groups are meeting in the coming months. I know for instance that both the Chico Horticulture Society and the Butte Rose Society have made changes to their meeting locations or times. Photo: Most succulents love the heat.

More details and many more gardening related events around the region can be found at the Monthly Calendar of Regional Gardening Events. If you have an event you’d like to see posted: send me an email Jennifer @jewellgarden.com.

In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum - Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell - all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR 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 positively North State.

Even though many of us in the North State can and do work in our vegetable gardens year-round, March, April and May are such traditional vegetable seed and seedling start times that I have been focusing a lot of my energy on my raised vegetable beds these past few weeks. Finishing up the winter-grown veggies like bok choy, winter lettuce and the last of the bulbing fennel (which was delicious braised in a light chicken stock), gave me room for carrot, beets, spring lettuce, snap pea seeds as well as potatoes. I have just enough room left to put out my tomato plants and basil seeds when the night temperatures stay reliably above 50 degrees. Photo: Bulbing fennel.

Vegetable gardening, growing fruit and nut trees, berry vines, etc. - any gardening you do that results in an edible item, is often termed Edible Landscaping. I think the use of this “fancy” term was introduced in order to 1. Make it clear that you’re talking about gardening for food production, and 2. Suggest that vegetable and fruit gardening is every bit as attractive in the landscape as “ornamental” flower and tree-type gardening.
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In 2003, Shasta College in Redding became a host college for the California Extension Master Gardener Program. Leimone Waite, who has been a Horticulture Instructor at the college since 1998, is the administrator of the very successful Master Gardener Program there. At Shasta College, a member of the California Community College System of schools, the program is a collaborative venture between the college and the University of California system’s Agricultural Extension offices, which officially oversees and is responsible for the Master Gardener program throughout the state of California. Butte County began hosting a Master Gardener program in 2008 and will run the training every other year.

The Master Gardener program was originally conceived and started in Washington State in 1972 by David Gibby, Ph.D, a horticultural Extension agent for the University of Washington.
But wait. To truly understand the Master Gardener program, you need to understand a little bit about the history of the agricultural or horticultural Extension Agent system, and to understand that, you need to understand a little bit about American history.

If that sounds almost Epic - it is. The rigorously trained, enthusiastic volunteer corps we now know as Master Gardeners are at the end of one thread of the history of Westward Expansion, the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions, and the subsequent suburbanization and even more recent Technological Revolution of the United States. In my humble opinion, the Master Gardener program is one shining example of a good and effective marriage between government resources, educational institutions and those of us at home on the farm – or in the garden as it were.
According to what is now known as the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service:

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