September is a transitional sort of month – has a difficult time making up its mind – am I Summer? Am I fall? Am I hot? Or am I cooling? No matter what the weather and the inevitability of the quite beautiful waning light of September making our way towards the Autumnal Equinox on the 22nd -– it is one my favorite times in the garden. Plants have mostly set their seeds – and we gardeners are ready to plant them once more - giving us a happy feeling of anticipation for the rains and fall and winter gardening seasons to come.

There’s lots of work to do out there still, keep watering but be careful not to overwater at this time of year. Cut back spent flowers and keep weeding and mulching. As you work, look around your ornamentals and make your lists of plants to add, transplant or edit out all together – and don’t forget your fall bulbs. In just a month or so you’ll be ready for this kind of planting in earnest.

In the edible garden, Market gardener and author of “Sacramento Valley Feast,” (available at Lyon Books in Chico) Wolfgang Rougle advises that ‘as soon as it cools down here, which it seems about to do, direct seed beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, choy, lettuce, etc. and to start in cells (or buy as transplants) kale, cabbage and broccoli. You can wait to sow cover crop, garlic and shallots until just before the first rain. Other than continual summer harvesting (still plenty of time to save seeds, even make crosses) it’s really just plant, plant, plant until early November! (garlic and cover crops can be last to go in.)”

Pam Geisel, Statewide Coordinator of the Master Gardener Program reminds us to: 1. Harvest and cure green ripe olives later in the month. You can salt cure, brine cure, lye cure and water cure olives. For complete instructions on safe pickling of olives and the details on all these methods, download our free 26 page publication at: http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8267.pdf.

2. Fertilize your fall garden two times this month lightly (every other week) to promote good growth of the vegetable plants prior to flower formation. Most people plant their gardens and then don’t fertilize until it is almost too late in the season to gain much effect. You can use any material that contains nitrogen such as manures, composts, fish emulsion, blood meal, or synthetic fertilizers etc. The key is that the plants must have adequate nitrogen to increase the vigor and size of the plant prior to colder weather setting in and before the spring flower development.

3. Plant garlic and onions. Some of the best varieties for our climate zone include: California Late White and California Early white http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/garlic.pdf
California Late is particularly good because it stores well. However, personally, I really like the flavor and color of “Music”, which has large reddish tinged cloves.

In the Monthly Calendar of Regional Gardening Events – August is not quite done with us and September has a lot in store:

August 27 - 28 - Corning: Corning Olive Festival! Friday night kicks it off with a parade down Corning’s main drag, Solano Street, at 6pm and don’t forget the bed races! Saturday continue the festivities all day at Wodson City Park with vendors, food, talent show, cook-off, music, arts & crafts, and much more. 530-824-5550 corningchamber@sbcglobal.net.

August 28 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Cedar Basin Shasta Trinity National Forest 8:00 am meet at Chico Park and Ride (Hwy 99/32). ADrive I-5 north to the Lake Siskiyou exit near Mt Shasta and up into the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Cedar Basin contains the highest stands (up to 6400 ft) of Port Orford-Cedar. Lakes, bogs and open forest give a nice variety of species including the insect eating pitcher plant, (Darlingtonia californica) and the sundew, Drosera. Also see Sierra laurel, Leucothoe davisiae, and American twinflower, (Linnaea borealis). Walking distance is 3 to 4 miles. Bring lunch, water, sun/insect protection and money for ride sharing. Call for an alternate meeting place. Leader: Marjorie McNairn 530-343-2397.

August 28 - Redding: Shasta Community Teaching Garden: Edible Native Plants 10:30am to 12:30pm, Room 822, Shasta College Main Campus. Ted Dawson will present information on how to identify and find native edible plants, as well as go over some herbal preparation information. Based on Wintu tradition. Fee $20. For registration information call: 530-225-4835. Register by going on-line to: www.shastacollege.edu/EWD and then click on Pathways. For workshop information: 530-242-2248 or email: teachinggarden@shastacollege.edu.

August 28 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay 9:30 am. A Walk with the Horticulture Manager, Lisa Endicott. Bring your notebooks and cameras for this participant-driven program. We’ll make our way through the Gardens with frequent stops for discussions about (what else?) plants! There’s something new to see every month! 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

August 31 - Chico: Butte Rose Society Regular Member Meeting: 7:00 pm Regular Member Meeting, Little Rose Show and Program by Joan Goff on Shady Ladies - good roses for partly shady locations. Goff is past president of the Marin Rose Society, a rose and gardening consultant and coach. Public welcome! Chico Veterans’ Memorial Hall on Rio Lindo Avenue. More Info: www.butte-rose-society.org

SEPTEMBER 2010

September 1 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society, Regular Member Meeting 7:30 pm Butte County Library. Begin our new season with a program of member photos as well as an overview of desertland plants of the South Western US. Public welcome! More information contact President Janna Lathrop: jlathrop4mlc@comcast.net

September 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

September 4 – Durham: The Worm Farm - Build Your Own Worm Bin Workshop 10 am - 1 pm; $50. Information provided at The Worm Farm workshops include, construction of your worm bin, instruction on proper drainage and ventilation techniques, covering the bin, identifying the best location, prevention of pests and parasites, and selecting the best bedding for your worm bin. Other knowledge you will obtain is the anatomy, regeneration, longevity, and feeding of your worms. The Worm Farm, 9033 Esquon Road, Durham, CA 9593. Price includes materials & 1 pound of special composting worms by The Worm Farm. More Info: www.thewormfarm.net/workshops-build_bin.html or call: 530-894-1276

September 5 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Green Lake Island 8:30 am meet at Chico Park and Ride (Hwy 99/32). OR meet at 10:30 at the Sunflower Flat trainhead (Jonesville, Humbug Summit Road, LNF Roads 26No2 and 26N31.) We will see many asters as we hike down to Soda Creek and then to a beautiful little lake with a unique floating sedge island. Lake is rimmed with huckleberries, potentilla, and buckbean. On the way back we stop at tiny frog lake - we have seen Pileated Woodpeckers on this hike in the past. Bring lunch, water, sun/insect protection and money for ride sharing. Call for an alternate meeting place. Leader: Leader: Wes Demspey: 530-342-2293

Monday Evening September 6, I will be hosting Northstate public Radio’s I-5 LIVE! Featuring Pam Gesiel – Statewide Coordinator of the Master Gardener Program talking all about bugs – We can’t live without them! But sometimes it helps to get thoughts on how to live with them more peacefully.

September 8 - Magalia: Magalia Beautification Society Regular Member Meeting 1:00 pm POA Racine Center at Wycliff Way and Racine Circle in Magalia; 12:30 for lunch, 1:00-3:00 for business. For more information: http://magaliagardeners.webs.com/

September 10 – The Gateway Science Museum is opening two new ehhibits – Natures Numbers and A forest Journey in which visitors will will eplore the amazing math built into nature.

September 11 - Sacramento: Fair Oaks Horticulture Center/Sacramento County Master Gardeners OPEN GARDEN 8:30 am - 11:30 am. Drop in to see the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center gardens on your own. Ask Master Gardeners questions about the FOHC and see how we make every drop count. Fair Oaks Park, Fair Oaks, Ca. More info call: 916-875-6913. Or: http://groups.ucanr.org/sactomg/Fair_Oaks_Horticulture_Center/Workshop_Schedule.htm

September 13 - Paradise: Paradise Garden Club monthly meeting 1:00 pm at Terry Ashe Recreation Center, 6626 Skyway, Paradise. The speaker will be Monty Malden from Mendon’s Nursery who will share his love for Japanese Maples. Additionally, he will give advice on choosing the right location, pruning techniques and the care of Japanese Maples. He will also have information about Mendon’s Fall Sale.

September 14 - Sacramento: North Valley Orchid Society General Member Meeting 7:30PM CARD Center “Arts & Crafts Room” 545 Vallombrosa Ave., Chico Marni Turkel - Miniature Orchids. More Info: North Valley Orchid Society NVOS2010@gmail.com

September 15 - Chico: Chico Horticulture Society Regular Member Meeting 9:45 – Noon. Regular Member Meeting and Program. Chico Library 1108 Sherman Avenue in Chico. More info: email President Jon Bennet at: ChicoGardenClub@yahoo.com.

September 15 - Redding: Shasta Rose Society - Regular Member Meeting and Mini-Rose Show, Public Welcome! 7:00 p.m. City of Redding Corporation Yard On Viking Way. More Info: http://www.shastarosesociety.org

September 16 - Redding: Shasta Chapter Cal Native Plant Society: General Member Meeting Chapter Meeting: Welcome back to the first meeting after the long summer! Meet Greg Suba, Conservation Director for CNPS. Greg will come up from Sacramento to inform us of some of the statewide conservation programs and conservation goals of CNPS, including the progress of the proposed massive renewable energy projects on thousands of acres in the Mohave Desert and other areas of California. Greg may also address a proposed wind generation facility on Walker Ridge, where north state Chapters of CNPS conduct fieldtrips. Greg has strongly and effectively represented CNPS at all levels of government, with politics and the media, and we appreciate his willingness to travel to the north state to share his knowledge and experiences. Meet at our new time and location: 7 PM at the Shasta College Health Science & University Programs building in downtown Redding, 1400 Market Street, Community Room 8220 (clock tower building at the north end of the Market Street Promenade; enter on south side of building). A Board meeting will be held before the regular meeting, at 5:30 PM at Angelo’s Pizza Parlour in the Foundry Square, 1774 California Street, Redding.

September 18 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay Fearless Pruning 9 am - 11 noon. Core Gardening Series: Are your plants growing amuck? Knowing how to prune plants for structure, strength, and overall health is an essential gardening skill! Join us as we practice specific pruning techniques for both young and older plants. Members and Turtle Bay volunteers FREE, nonmembers $3 Meet at Arboretum & Botanical Gardens Office - 1135 Arboretum Drive (Next to Greenhouse in Nursery) Take N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take the right fork. Nursery on immediate left. More info: 530-242-3178 or www.turtlebay.org/nursery

September 18th, 2010 FREE and open to the public 1 pm Tour of our 100 year old Mission Olive Orchards at Chaffin Orchards hosted by Kurt Albrecht (farm owner) and Don Landis (606 Coal Canyon Rd, Oroville, Ca 95965) 6 pm Natural Olive Curing Class – We’ll go over to the Grange building in Chico (2775 Old Nord Ave, Chico, California 95973) where Don Landis will be demonstrating old world olive curing techniques including dry salt cure, water cured, and the Greek style brine cure. All cured without using lye. Samples of the cured olives and tapenade will be available at the end of the demonstration. Raw organically farmed olives for home curing will be available for purchase or to be sure we’ll have enough email to pre-order. Email chris_kerston@chaffinfamilyorchards.com to RSVP – its not required that people RSVP to attend but it would help us tremendously to be able to prepare enough samples if we knew how many people were coming especially since it’s a free event. Chris Kerston Chaffin Family Orchards 606 Coal Canyon Rd Oroville, Ca 95965 530-533-1676 Ranch Office 530-370-6432 Cell http://www.ChaffinFamilyOrchards.com/http://www.twitter.com/ChaffinOrchards

September 19 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: Forest Lake Lassen Volcanic National Park 8:30 am meet at Chico Park and Ride (Hwy 99/32). We will follow a small creek bordered by mountain alder into a magnificent old growth red fir and western white pine forest to a small lake at the base of Mt. Brokeoff. Salt lupine, aster and arnica should still be in bloom. Only 1 and 1/2 miles but at that elevation (7300 ft) we will take it slow. Bring lunch, water, sun/insect protection and money for ride sharing. Call for an alternate meeting place. Leader: Wes Demspey: 530-342-2293; Gerry Ingco: 530-894-5123.

September 23 - 26 – Red Bluff: Slow Food Shasta Cascade’s Olive Festival at the Tehama County Fair’s 90th Anniversary Come celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the fair with, among other great displays, Slow Food Shasta Cascade’s 1st Annual Olive Oil Festival and Tasting of regional oils and olives. Yum. Tehama District Fairgrounds Antelope Blvd. Red Bluff. More info: http://www.slowfoodshastacascade.org/5.html or http://www.tehamadistrictfair.com/

September 24 -October 3 – Redding: Wyntour Gardens ANNUAL FALL Sale! All nursery stock in one-gallon size and larger is 40% off! Shop early for the best selection! 8026 Airport Road (1 mi. S. of the Redding Airport, next to Kents Mkt) Redding, CA Phone 365-2256 visit us on the web @ wyntourgardens.com or email inform@wyntourgardens.com.

September 25 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay 9:30 am. A Walk with the Horticulture Manager, Lisa Endicott. Bring your notebooks and cameras for this participant-driven program. We’ll make our way through the Gardens with frequent stops for discussions about (what else?) plants! There’s something new to see every month! 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

September 29 - Chico: Chico Horticulture Society Evening Gardeners 6:30 pm. Evening Gardeners Program. Chico Library 1108 Sherman Avenue in Chico. More info: email President Jon Bennet at: ChicoGardenClub@yahoo.com.

Jewellgarden.com’s new line of lovely little note cards are bite sized and ready to enjoy on-line or at local fine shops near you. As spring turns to summer and summer to fall, look for Edibles in the Garden blank journals, note cards featuring seeds and fruits as well as 2011 calendars and blank journals. A portion of all sales of the Edibles in the Garden note cards goes to Slow Food Shasta Cascade and the many projects it supports. All of Jewellgarden.com’s cards are printed in Chico by Quadco printing using 100% recycled paper and vegetable-based ink.

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.

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…)

Rich, minty, sagey and earthy pine fragrances waft around you as you walk through Nancy and David Schleiger’s 2 acre plus, close to 26 year old garden. Beneath the sheltering canopies of stately old oaks and black walnuts, native plants and aromatic, blooming herbs line the walkways and borders in room after garden room of the long narrow property. The front garden, which greets visitors and acts as a bridge between the quiet street and the Schleiger’s house, is just the beginning. Cross the threshold of the back garden gate and you find yourself craning to see beyond the next gate, around the next corner, over the next border. “How far does the garden go?” you might ask in anticipation, “Oh, a ways,” Nancy might reply, modestly. Nancy Schleiger likes her garden plants to smell good, to taste good, to feel good and to help you to feel good. And whether its the herbs she has been cultivating and selling in our region for so long, or the many, many natives she now cultivates as well - both for her home garden and for her Native Springs Nursery- her plants generally fill all her requirements. Photo: Ornamental oregano.

Nancy, and her husband David, an architect, started working on their Durham garden in the early 1980s, and Nancy first started going to local farmer’s markets shortly thereafter. “I first became interested in herbs as I got to know more growers - especially those from different cultures such as some of the Hmong gardeners - I began to learn how other people use different plants - for food, for medicine. I started to experiment with different herbs and growing new ones each season and soon people started to seek me out for interesting herb selections,” Nancy explained to me as we wandered from the back deck garden, through a native and perennial border room and through a gate into the official Herb Garden. Photo: Nancy Schleiger standing beneath an old oak which reigns over her front garden, much of which is planted with native shrubs and perennials as well as hardy and drought tolerant herbs. (more…)

Literature and gardening have long gone hand in hand. This weekend, and for the past five years, literature in Siskiyou County gets a helping-hand from the annual Mt. Shasta Garden Tour - organized by Katie Jessup, owner of Spring Hill Nursery and Gardens - the starting point for the tour. All of the costs of organizing and holding the tour are absorbed by Spring Hill Nursery and Gardens and ALL of the proceeds go to the benefit of the Friends of the Mt. Shasta Library, a branch of the Siskiyou County main library. As a result of on-going economic struggles, Siskiyou County is considering closure of their library system. An event that is “inconceivable” to Katie Jessup - who sees a library as an integral part of any town. And so this year, the garden tour takes on a slightly more pointed urgency. “But a library of some sort will always exist,” Katie states reassuringly- to herself (and me). “People will make it happen one way or another no matter what the county decides.” (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…)

“We had to use all those words,” Kristen del Real explained to me, “Each one was really important to our mission with this project.”

Eat. Learn. Grow.

Together these words are part directive and part blessing - which in many ways is what Chico. Eat. Learn. Grow. is. A hoped-for directive and a blessing for the Chico area, where del Real and Laurie Niles and others working on the initiative saw a strong “need for our area’s food to be more present in our children’s lives, especially at school” where “if a child is on free or reduced fee lunch, they may eat two to three meals at school,” del Real told me. So if school provided food is not particularly healthful, then those children might never eat healthful food. Photo: Kristen del Real (front), co-coordinator of Chico. Eat. Learn. Grow., introducing Bridgette Brick Wells to a recent presentation on the program ot interested community members. (more…)

This story begins with a shared passion. Shared passion and a collegial friendship between a man and woman, conducted from opposite coasts of North America in the 1980s.

Francis H. (or Frank as he is known) Cabot, an avid gardener in Cold Spring, New York and Ruth Bancroft, an avid gardener in Walnut Creek, California, share a profound love of gardening and plants. Despite many differences between these two gardeners in space, age, climate, hardiness zone, stylistic inclinations and gender (which as we know can lead to very different gardening tendencies), it was Frank Cabot and his wife, Anne’s late-1980s visit to Ruth Bancroft’s legendary cacti and succulent garden that inspired Cabot’s founding of the Garden Conservancy in order to help guarantee the conservation of “exceptional” gardens such as Bancroft’s. Photo: Frank Cabot, courtesy of Garden Conservancy website. (more…)

Lunch began with a warm bowl of palest green cream of spring asparagus soup (created from a combination of local asparagus and Berkeley Farms cream), green onions from the garden garnished the top as well as a swirling line of red smoked paprika from Sawmill Creek Farm in Paradise. Crunchy bread from Chico’s Tin Roof Bakery was passed around for dipping, and plates of regional goat cheeses and soft butter filled out the first course. A hearty salad of tender, multi-colored spring greens from the garden was tossed in local olive oil and balsamic vinegar, accompanied by some more goat cheese served as the entrée. Homemade chocolate chip cookies (the carmel-brown, thin crisp kind, which I like) were dessert. Photo: Home grown blueberries.
(more…)

May is upon us – the crowning of the May is actively happening in my garden. On Egreenway.com out of Red Bluff I ran across this timely quote by 20th century naturalist, writer, and photographer Edwin Way Teale: “The world’s favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May.”


So much activity happens in our gardens in May – much to be done and much to be enjoyed. (more…)

Wolfgang Rougle is a young woman with a sharp mind, an engaged spirit, a strong work ethic and a big vision. She is also the owner and market-farmer of 20 acres west of Cottonwood, named Twining Tree Farm, which she describes as: “a small farm located in the foothills of the Coast Range in the northern Sacramento Valley, at about 700 feet, in a sea of blue oak savannah.” Photo: A fleeting glimpse of Wolfgang Rougle, hard at work on her Twining Tree Farm west of Cottonwood.

A community activist for good locally grown food, and sustainable small farms, Wolfgang is also an eloquent writer and has authored a small book/manifesto entitled “Sacramento Valley Feast: How to find, harvest and cook local, wild food… All Year Long!” as well as being a regular contributor to edible Shasta Butte. (more…)