Santa Barbara

Wendy Powers, associate vice president, announced the 2018 winners of the biennial Distinguished Service Awards on April 11 at the UC ANR Statewide Conference in Ontario.

Condiments and Chutneys By Stephanie Hill UCCE Master Food Preserver Do you love taking an ordinary dish and adding a zing of flavor or dash of spice to really bring those mundane dishes to life? Adding a smidge of a savory, sweet, or spicy condiment can really boost a meal to that next level.

Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County Client's Request: Do you have recommendations on tomato cages? I bought the heavier gauge tapered cylinder ones at the big box store.

Earth Day has roots in California, stemming in part from an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, wrote Rose Hayden Smith in a UC Food Observer post marking the 48th annual Earth Day this Sunday, April 22. "The Santa Barbara oil spill galvanized U.S.

So, there are peach trees right now that are flower-less and leaf-less. Wisteria which should have flowered in February is bare. The Royal apricot next door has no flower. The Lombardy poplars and birch in Oxnard don't have leaves.

Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County Client's Request: My 20 year old Japanese maple (Acer spp) did not return this year. I need help identifying what the problem is and how to resolve it.

This note from Cressida Silvers, either go to Temecula or maybe do a more local version of the training: Good afternoon, The upcoming CAPCA meeting (see below for details) in Temecula is a 2-day event (12 CEUs), including a workshop and field visit focused on detecting live ACP in citrus trees, and...

Like most of us, trees don't want to be eaten alive. To prevent this gruesome fate, they developed extremely tough cell walls around 400 million years ago. For millions of years, nothing could break down lignin, the strongest substance in those cell walls.

Spring is here, flowers are blooming and wildlife abounds.

My last post covered the use of color in garden design from the perspective of what bees see. While aesthetics are important in any garden, the needs of bees come first at the Haven and other bee gardens.