COULTERVILLE – The hillsides are beautiful now, but it won’t be long before all that green turns to brown and fire season is here. Mariposa County Master Gardeners will present a free, public workshop on fire-safe landscaping on Saturday, Apr. 13, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Coulterville School and Community Clubhouse at the corner of Cemetery and Broadway.

One year of seeds brings seven years of weeds! Don’t let your weeds go to seed!

Sowing smart! What vegetables can you grow this year to save the most money at the grocery store? Yields per square foot and dollar value and of that (organic) produce at harvest in the supermarket were considered to form this list.

OAKHURST – The Superbowl is Sunday but for tillers of soil, Sunday’s nearly balmy temperatures, expected to be in the mid-sixties, it’s an opportunity to get outside and do some winter gardening. True Value Home Center is offering a free Winter Sowing and Preparing New Garden Beds Workshop, in the garden department, Sunday, Feb. 3, starting at 1 p.m.

Last year, I planted violas over the mini daffodils in patio pots and want to do the same this year. Deer don’t bother these on the patio,…they rarely come up the concrete steps any more and they aren’t attracted to either plant. It’s a safe zone.

Every year, while visiting my favorite nurseries, I prowl the sale tables in late August and September. I cheerfully call these plants that I purchase “rescued plants.” I bring them home at a much discounted price and find them a home in my garden so that they can make it through the winter.

It is a commonly heard in casual remarks on gardening topics and maintaining a landscape in the Sierra Foothills that Manzanita and other chaparral plants must be cut down and removed because they are so very flammable.