By Denise Cottrell
Master Gardener of Yolo County
Are you a garden watcher? You may have noticed the unprecedented rains of the winter and the recent warm weather have brought super blooms for native plants and for many of gardeners’ established favorites.
Your keen gardener eye might also observe more native bees, hoverflies and butterflies visiting your garden. Look for lady beetles in all their life stages exploding all over your plants, wolfing down aphids, however, make sure you know what young lady beetles look like because they can be mistaken for garden evildoers.
And if you see something that you need help identifying or have any garden issue that gives you pause, do not hesitate to contact the UCCE Yolo Master Gardeners at their hotline at 530 666-8736 or via email at mgyolo@ucdavis.edu.
If you are out and about, you can find the Master Gardeners on Saturday mornings at the Davis and Woodland Farmers Markets. UCCE Yolo Master Gardeners hold a Questions and Answers Table at The Woodland Farmers Market, located on First Street across from Woodland Public from 9 a.m. to noon.
You will find the Master Gardeners at the Davis Farmer’s Market in Central Park, located at 4th and C Streets, from 8 a.m. to noon. Their table is located between the Rose Garden and the Sensory Garden.
In addition, you will also find a UCCE Yolo County Master Gardeners Question and Answer Desk in West Sacramento, at Lowes, 2250 Lake Washington Blvd., on Saturday, June 3, and June 17, from 10 a.m. to noon. For more information about the West Sacramento Questions and Answers Desk, contact Master Gardener Janet Branaman, at branamanj4@gmail.com.
Free events
If you have a specific interest, the UCCE Yolo Master Gardener provides talks, workshops and events which are free and open to the public. Listed below are the events scheduled for June.
Beginning in June, the regular monthly meeting of the Kitchen Garden Chat will be held in the Leake Room at Woodland Public Library, located across from the Woodland Farmers Market at the corner of Court and College Streets, and via Zoom, at https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/98028723763.
Every month, Master Gardener Treva Valentine provides oversight and tips for the care and maintenance of your edible garden. The meeting on June 3 from 10–11 a.m. will emphasize garden pests, tomato issues, and how to store your summer bounty.
The Yolo Master Gardener/Yolo County Library Garden Workshops are held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month from 3–4 p.m. and meet via Zoom. Irrigation, Putting the Pieces Together is the topic for the meetings on June 8 and June 22.
The talk, presented by Maureen Clark of Bright Garden Designs, will provide the information you need to design and install a drip watering system for a wide range of plant types and circumstances. On June 8, Clark will prepare you to avoid the pitfalls that can cost you time and money or, even worse, water-stressed or waterlogged plants. The Zoom link is https://yolocounty.zoom.us/j/86758445490.
On Thursday, June 22, Clark will present Irrigation, Part II. Participants will finish the workshop on everything you need to know about drip irrigation and then dive into the best practices for conserving water in the garden. The Zoom link is https://yolocounty.zoom.us/j/86565613215.
For more information, contact Jennifer Baumbach at jm
baumbach@ucanr.edu or Joan Tuss at Joan.Tuss@yolocounty.org to receive Zoom links for this and future workshops.
Gardening For Year-Round Meals will meet on June 10, from 11 a.m. to noon at Grace Garden, located behind the United Methodist Church at 1620 Anderson Rd. in Davis, near the back of the parking lot. Join UCCE Master Gardener Karen Slinkard for a discussion that will focus on five topics: summer pests, irrigation, keeping pruning shears sharp, how to keep herbs producing, the edible flowers blooming in your garden, and how to enjoy the bounty from your garden. For more information, contact UCCE Yolo County Master Gardener Karen Slinkard at kslinka@gmail.com.
