August - from the latin Augustus is a word variously meaning Magestic, Venerable, inspiring Admiration, and Stately. A name derived from the roman ruler of the same – it seems well-chosen for August the eighth month of our calendar year. A month in the North State garden that is synonymous with plenty, August is perhaps the pinnacle of heat, fragrance and taste in much that our gardens offer to us each summer. From flowers to fruit, to dry heat – we are lucky. Photo: Garden Fresh Flowers from Joan Walters of Forest Ranch. You can find her bouquets at the Chico Saturday Market. Your local farmers market is full of just such abundant beauty this time of year.

The old Forecaster from Anewscafe.com notes that in the last week of July alone, our daylight hours diminish by 11 minutes and while they have been shortening since the summer solstice, it is in August that I really begin to notice. 5:30 am is a softer light by far than July, and my bats don’t tuck themselves in for the day until almost 6 am; dusk is marked by flying squadrons of dragonflies and the vibrations of heat happy insects. For now, the seasonal shift isn’t difficult - the nicest bits of summer are still ours.

Much of this month’s gardening tasks involve simple maintenance and forward planning. Continue to water well those plants that need it, such as annual or seasonal crops in the vegetable garden, but cut back water on those plants whose primary growing season is now past. John Whittlesey owner of Canyon Creek Nursery and Design out of Oroville, notes that “Ornamental plants, lawn, trees, shrubs, perennials (including weeds) have completed much of their seasonal growth by this point in the season. The water they’re taking up now is to sustain the plant not to increase its size. So if you’re watering with an irrigation controller, reduce the run times across the board 10% and continue reducing the run times at least 10 % each month through the fall. Be careful not to overwater drought tolerant plants. Most English lavenders are killed in late summer when watered excessively during a hot spell. And of course, mulching reduces water use considerably.”

Pam Geisel, Statewide Coordinator for the Master Gardener program and who lives and gardens in Hamilton City recommends August as a good time to do quite a lot of pruning in the home orchard. Apricots, cherries and olives should be pruned now while the weather is still very dry to avoid disease problems. August is also a good time to plant or direct seed many of your winter vegetables including: broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, dill, endive, fennel, green onion, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustards, peas, spinach, chard, and turnips. If you wait too long to plant, they will bolt before harvest and you will have wasted your garden space. Protect young seedlings on hot days with a light shade cloth.” I have been working cutting back my spent lavender, sage and rose blooms as well as my bolted greens from the last spring planting and saving seed where I can.

Last year at this same time, Laurel Kessler of Shambani Organics reminded me about the Plant a Row for the Hungry project of Garden Writers Association: www.gardenwriters.org or 877-492-2727. If you have a lot of extra produce coming from your garden just now, consider calling one of the food banks or food providers below to see if they are in need of fresh produce.

Garden Writers Association Plant A Row for the Hungry (http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=index.html)

If you know of a food bank or food provider that might accept excess food for the benefit of our community, let me know and I will get it added: Jennifer@JEwellgarden.com.

Chico
Butte County Gleaners, Inc.

1436 Unit E - Nord Avenue 
Chico CA 95926

Phone: 530-899-3758


Jesus Center
1297 Park Avenue
Chico, CA 95928-6175
(530) 345-2640

Tehama County Gleaners
530-529-2264
20699 Walnut St
Red Bluff, CA 96080

Shasta Trinity Tehama HIV
PO Box 493283, Redding, CA 96049-3283
(530) 223-2118‎

Food Bank 100 Mercy Oaks Dr, Redding - (530) 226-3071

Shasta Senior Nutrition Program
City: Redding
Phone: 530.226.3071
Website: http://www.ssnpweb.org/
Counties served: Shasta

Yuba/Sutter Gleaners Food Bank
City: Yuba City
Phone: 530.673.3834
Counties served: Sutter, Yuba

Name: California Emergency Foodlink
City: Sacramento
Phone: 800.283.9000
Website: http://www.foodlink.org/
Counties served: Sacramento

In the calendar of regional gardening events – we have plenty to enjoy as well. If you are interested in our regional events, be sure to check the On-line Calendar of Regional Gardening Events at jewellgarden.com regularly – events are added throughout the month. I do my very best to keep the calendar up to date and accurate, please confirm all events with the event host. If you have an event you would like listed or if you are aware of a mistake on my calendar, please send all pertinent information to me at: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com! Thanks.

AUGUST

August 1 – Chico: Chico Permaculture Guild General Meeting 7 - 9 pm Quaker Meeting House - 1601 Hemlock Street, Chico. The meeting will start at 7pm and go til we’re tired of it. Our hopes for the meetings are to share ideas and knowledge, plan projects and cultivate community. We would love for you and any friends who would be interested to join us! The Guild meets monthly to schedule member and community events, permaculture training courses as well as collaboration efforts with local groups actively involved in sustainability. We seek to engage people in cultivating a more permanent culture in Chico and the Northern Sacramento Valley. More info: http://grou.ps/chicopermacultureguild

August 3 - 7 – Yuba City: Yuba Sutter Fair this year themed “Dance to the Moosic,” will include all the traditional floriculture and horticulture displays including those by the Sutter-Buttes Garden Club. For more info: http://ysfair.com/

August 4 – Paradise: Saturen Studio Botanical Illustration Classes - Summer Session IV begins 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm every Thursday for 4 weeks, Aug 4 - Aug 25. 10 yrs to Adult. Create scientific illustrations of exotic flowers, leafy foliage, tantalizing fruit, and seeds – even carnivorous species. Draw flora to scale, add texture, shadows, and balance as you transfer visual references to paper. Sharpen your drawing skills and pencils as you learn techniques that create 3-dimensional drawings that appear to pop out of the paper! Terry Ashe Recreation Center in Paradise, California Paradise Recreation and Park District (PRPD) Supplies list available at PRPD office. FEE: $30.00 INSTRUCTOR: Ben Saturen. More info please email: b.saturen@yahoo.com

August 5 - Orland: Friendly Garden Club Regular Monthly Meeting 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Monthly on the first Friday Carnegie Center, 912 3rd St., Orland CA 95963 more info: please email: FriendlyGardenClub@hushmail.com

August 6 – Fair Oaks: Fair Oaks Horticultural Center/Sacramento Master Gardeners: Harvest Day - Sacramento’s Ultimate Garden Event! 8:30 am - 2 pm. Listen to speakers, watch demonstrations, visit educational booths, tour the gardens, sample fresh tree-fruit, grapes, and vegetables. Visit the plant clinic for advice. For more info go to: http://ucanr.org/sites/sacmg/Fair_Oaks_Horticulture_Center/

August 6 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: DRAKESBAD TO DEVIL’S KITCHEN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK 8:30 am; Meet at Chico Park & Ride west parking lot (Hwy CA 99/32) in time to leave by 8:30 am. Call the leader for an alter- nate meeting. Take a lunch, water, sun/wind/insect pro- tection, and money for ridesharing. We will drive Hwy CA 32 to CA 36, 66 miles to the mountain town of Chester in Plumas County. Then travel county roads to the trailhead near the Warner Valley Campground in Lassen Park. The last three miles is on graveled road surface. The 4.2-mile round trip trail to Devil’s Kitchen is gentle and the trail is wide and has a smooth surface. The trail begins near the Drakesbad Guest Ranch at 5,680 ft. and passes thru an area of small warm springs. Half of the distance to Devil’s Kitchen is across flowered meadows, before finally entering a forested setting. Devil’s Kitchen is a thermal area of belching fumaroles, boiling mud pots, steaming rock outcrops in a dazzling array of fiery colors. Being transected by a fast flowing snowmelt stream. It is unique from other thermal areas in the park. Leaders: Gerry Ingco 530-893- 5123, Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293.

August 6 – Redding: Shasta Chapter of California Native Plant Society: Field Trip Panther Springs to South Gate Meadows on Mt. Shasta 9 am Meet at Redding City Hall south parking lot on Parkview Avenue. Hike a moderately difficult 5.2-mile loop trail from Panther Springs to South Gate Meadows on Mt. Shasta at the 7800’ elevation level. The elevation climb is 1000’ and the trail is primitive in places. This walk will feature wildflowers typical of mountain meadows as well as beautiful views of the Sacramento Valley, Castle Crags and surrounding terrain. Bring water, lunch and adequate hiking footwear. No dogs, please. Mt. Shasta area residents should call walk leader David Ledger at 355- 8542 for a local meeting location.

August 6 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Plants from Down Under for Central Valley Gardens 10 a.m., meet at the east end of the Arboretum at the edge of the parking lot behind Borders California and Western Australia have similar climate and environmental conditions, so many Australian plants are well suited for Central Valley landscapes. Learn about some great garden plants from Down Under during a free guided tour of the UC Davis Arboretum’s Australian Collection on Saturday, August 6 at 10:00 a.m. The tour will meet at the east end of the Arboretum, at the edge of the parking lot behind Borders Books and Music, on D Street in downtown Davis. There is no charge for the tour and free parking is available in the shopping center lot. For more information, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

August 6 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Charlie Rabbit and Friends 11 am. Presented by John & Betty Fitzpatrick. An interactive program in the Children’s Garden (or Greenhouse in rain) for children, their siblings, parents and grandparents. Join Charlie, our adorable jack rabbit puppet, in various gardening activities. Wear your favorite gardening clothes! 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 13 – FULL MOON & Perseid meteor shower visible in night sky.

August 13 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: SQUARE LAKE AND MT. LINN YOLLA BOLLY MIDDLE EEL WILDERNESS MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST 8:30 am; Meet at Chico Park & Ride west parking lot (Hwy CA 99/ 32) in time to leave by 8:30 am. Phone leaders for an alternate meeting place. Wear sturdy shoes. Take a lunch, water, sun/wind/insect protection, and money for ridesharing. We will drive 48 miles to the foothill com- munity of Paskenta and 30 miles on forest roads M2 and M22 to the Ides Cove Trail head (7,000 ft). Last 20 miles is over gravel road. Hike 1 1⁄ 2 miles through Red Fir and White Pine forest along a level trail to tiny Square Lake located in a north-facing glaciated cirque below the sum- mit of Mt Linn (8,092 ft.). Option is a scramble up to the Foxtail Pine forest and Sub-Alpine gardens on Mt Linn. Leaders: John Whittlesey 530-533-2166, Gerry Ingco 530-893-5123.

August 21 - Chico: Mt Lassen Chapter Cal Native Plant Society - Field Trip: LAKE EILER 1000 LAKES WILDERNESS 8:30 am; Meet at Chico Park & Ride west parking lot (Hwy CA 99/32) in time to leave by 8:30 am with lunch, water, hiking gear, sun/insect protection and money for ride sharing. Call leader for alternate meeting. We will travel 115 miles on Hwys CA 89, CA 36 and CA 44 past the north entrance to Lassen National Park to Old Station. Then drive about 8 mi the signed turnoff to the wilderness (33N25); then 5 mi to forest road 33N23 and the short distance to the turnoff to the Tamarack Trailhead. The excellent trail wanders easily through the lodgepole forest for 2 miles to Lake Eiler. On the return we will loop past Barrett Lake and numerous ponds replete with yellow pond lilies. Leaders: Jim Dempsey 530-846-1435, Wes Dempsey 530-342-2293

August 27 – Redding: Shasta Chapter of California Native Plant Society: Plant Weeding Session One- to two-hour work session starting at 9 AM at the Shasta College greenhouses. (Note the earlier time; due to hot summer temperatures!) The greenhouses are located near the back of Shasta College, where the livestock barns are. We will be weeding and getting ready for the Fall Plant Sale, which will be Saturday, September 24, this year. Bring clippers and any other tools you might need. Please call Susan Libonati at 347-4654 for further information.

August 27 – Redding: Shasta Chapter of California Native Plant Society: Field Trip Brokeoff Mountain 8 am Meet at Redding City Hall south parking lot on Parkview Avenue. Brokeoff Mountain hike and plant walk. This is a strenuous 7-mile, 6- to 7-hour hike with a 2700’ elevation climb. This is a more difficult hike than to the top of Mt. Lassen, but if you can do that hike, you can make it up Brokeoff. The trail starts in a riparian, flowering streamside filled with willow and alder, and climbs through red fir and mountain hemlock forests, intermixed with meadows and ponds. The top ridge features whitebark pine and many wind- and desiccation-resistant wildflowers. Bring plenty of water, lunch, suncreen and hat. Meet at 8 AM at the Redding City Hall south parking lot on Parkview Avenue, or at 9:30 AM at the trailhead. Call walk leader David Ledger 355-8542 for more information.

August 27 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Walk With Lisa Endicott, Horticultural Manager 11 am. Bring your notebooks and camera! We’ll make our way through the Gardens with frequent stops for discussions about (what else?) plants! 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 27 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum: Guided Tour: Native American Contemplative Garden 10 a.m., Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, Old Davis Road, UC Davis. Native Californians traditionally use plants for food, clothing, building materials, medicine, tools and games. Learn about traditional uses of California native plants during a free public tour of the Native American Contemplative Garden at the UC Davis Arboretum on Saturday, August 27. This garden honors the Patwin people who lived at the Arboretum site and the descendents who keep their traditions. The tour will leave at 10:00 a.m. from the Buehler Alumni & Visitors Center, across from the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on Old Davis Road on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the tour, and 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.

August 29 - Colusa: Garden Club of Colusa County regular member meeting and program 6:30 pm St. Stephan’s Church 5th and Webster Colusa For more information, email John Vafis: jvafis@citlink.net or Cynthia White: jimncyn66@comcast.net.

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.

Bridgette Brick-Wells, founder of the Healthy Lunch & Lifestyles Project working in Shasta, Tehama and Butte Counties; Gina Sims, Garden Coordinator at Chico Country Day Charter School and also working with the Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion at CSU, Chico; and Debra Abbott, School Garden Educator in the Chico Unified School District as well as with the Chico Area Recreation District (CARD), all joined me for special one-hour live program on Tuesday October 19th from 10 am - 11 am. We discussed how school gardens, farm-to-school connections and healthy school lunch options are sowing the seeds for better life-long physical, cultural, environmental and economic health throughout our region. Photo: Kids in a young gardening program at Chico Christian School in Chico. (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…)

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…)

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.
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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…)

It’s mid- February and even in the colder sections of the North State the time is now for planning and even planting your spring and summer vegetable seeds and starts – inside and out. On Monday evening February 15th, I hosted a special edition of I-5 LIVE on Northstate Public Radio (91.7 fm KCHO in Chico and 88.9 fm in Redding) from 8 to 9 pm to chat about edible gardening and getting ready for the spring vegetable garden.

My guests for the evening were David Grau, owner of Valley Oak Tool, former market gardener and organizer of the Chico Organic Gardening Series; also, Wayne Kessler, co-owner with his wife Laurel, of Shambani Organics, a specialty herb and vegetable start grower based in Shingletown, California.
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Wow – How about that rain and snow? And more is on the way. Which is wonderful for our plants, soils and watersheds, but when it comes in long stretches of gray days, it can play havoc with my mood (and the power in much of our region). Even a few minutes of fresh air and weak sunshine does me a world of good. You don’t want to walk on planted ground when it is very wet if you can help it, because you will compact the soil to the point of harming its structure. But you can get out and walk on unplanted ground – such as paths. I got so stir crazy in the latest long gray stretch that in the pouring rain I rebuilt my whole compost system and weeded all my pathways. Weeds come out of wet soil so nicely – slick as snot as my father likes to say. Photo: Gray skies hand low and tulle fog fills in the valleys looking southwest from Mt. Shasta in January. (more…)

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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“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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