Keep your soil covered. This is only one of the decrees from a recent presentation by the UC Master Gardeners of Napa County. But what does covering the soil mean? Why do we want to cover it and with what? The answers are pretty simple.
Every year I have a different favorite plant. Last year it was brugmansia, the year before that monarda, but this year--which has already had a couple of scorching days--it is the oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).
When I first moved to Napa Valley many years ago, olive trees were everywhere, both on the hillsides and in the valley. There was a large grove high on a hill on Silverado Trail, but over the years those trees have disappeared.
I love salads. A salad with my dinner is almost as essential as a glass of wine. When most of us think of a green salad we think of lettuce. Lettuce has been cultivated for thousands of years. The word lettuce comes from the Latin for milk, due to the milky liquid it produces when a leaf is broken.
Every gardener has the ability to have a positive and significant influence on earth's warming climate. Improving soil by adding organic material like compost helps the life in earth's over-tilled and compacted soil. Try thinking of the soil in your garden as a living body.
Six weeks ago, I dug up my undies. Earlier this year, I decided to repeat an experiment that the new class of Napa County Master Gardeners had conducted last winter: I buried my underpants. Why do such a thing? The results will tell you how active the residents of your soil are.
Can we improve our soil and manage insect pests with techniques that slow and maybe even ultimately reverse the human damage to natural resources? Practices that started innocently enough to improve and simplify food production have turned into a huge problem.
Heal the earth by healing the soil? Are we really able to slow global warming by manipulating dirt? Humans have been stripping mother earth of her verdant, life-supporting cloak for a long time, but the damage has shot up to a critical stage in recent years.
