What is it about gardens that invites us in? What allures us to dig in the soil, to sow seeds, to carefully tend tiny seedlings as we would tiny children? The essence of gardening is likely different for each individual. For some, the idea of gardening is a simple container with some herbs available for use in the kitchen. For others it may be rows of beds utilized for growing food, flowers, or both. For others, gardens may be vast expanses of native plants or lovely areas carved out for ornamentals. Regardless, each has unique reasons for gardening — or not.
As we draw closer to spring, Master Gardeners are positioned to take a kaleidoscope-like look at gardening and gardeners. The public workshop today (February 18) Best Practices of Great Gardeners will be presented from 10 a.m. to noon at the Veterans Memorial Hall (255 S. Auburn St.) in Grass Valley. This is a new workshop, which will look at how over time, gardeners refine their practices in their yards for many reasons: to make the work outside easier on their bodies, to grow and nurture more sustainable landscapes, and to utilize new practices learned. With so many committed gardeners in our community, we’ve collected and seek to share the best practices of great gardeners so we all can benefit from their knowledge and experience gained over decades. Come and see if you are interested in implementing these practices in your yard.
For those who consider growing tomatoes the epitome of spring gardening, the Master Gardener workshop on February 25 will offer a good look into just that — Totally Tomatoes will be about tomatoes, including some best practices for starting tomatoes from seed – selecting the best varieties for taste, needs and that grow well here. Presenters will also walk participants through different growing strategies, including raised beds, trellising, spacing and crop rotation. This workshop is also at the Veterans Hall, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Cactus and succulents have become a very popular superstars in some gardens — especially in light of the drought we’ve experienced the past number of years. Our MG workshop on March 4 — Growing Cactus and Succulents will focus on these lovely, sometimes very unusual plants that grow well in our county.
Coming up on March 11 there is a very special event coming to Nevada County! This is an in-person, first-ever collaboration between the Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, and the Master Gardeners of Nevada County. We are so pleased to announce that Jennifer Jewell, nationally recognized speaker, author and host of the award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place, will be in Grass Valley! “Invitations to and from the Garden: Cultivating Places & People” will be presented from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church, located at 828 W. Main Street in Grass Valley.
This is a ticketed event and tickets are for sale online via Eventbrite. The price is $20; space is limited, so buy your ticket early.
Gardening for Positive Change
Jennifer Jewell will explore the philosophy of Cultivating Place, and just how gardeners and their gardens are powerful agents for positive change in our world, addressing challenges as wide-ranging as climate change, habitat and biodiversity loss, cultural polarization, and individual and communal health and wellbeing.
Attendees will see the power of gardens and gardeners through a lens of invitation — invitations we recognize and accept from our gardens in our roles as gardeners, and invitations we extend to the greater world through our gardening practices.
Jewell will share with her audience examples of such invitations taken from interviews on her weekly program and from her books. She has authored the award-winning The Earth in Her Hands (2020) on horticultural women in leadership roles, and Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast (2021), about beautiful and innovative place-based, native-plant, ecological gardens that celebrate western landscapes, with amazing photography by Caitlin Atkinson. Such resources, inspirations and invitations become blueprints guiding us in ways we can all grow our world better — and beautifully.
Jewell’s greatest passion is elevating the way we think and talk about gardening, the empowerment of gardeners, and the possibility inherent in the intersection of places, environments, cultures, individuals and the gardens that bring them together for the betterment of all the lives on this generous planet.
For more information about these or other Master Gardener activities, check our website at https://ncmg.ucanr.org/ .
