By Brian David —  Guided by sonar, night vision and the earth’s magnetic field, the Pallid, Mexican, and California Myotis bats – flying near fifty miles an hour – eat nocturnal insects mid-air. A dining night out delivers over half a bat’s body weight in nutritious insects. Central California crops including beets, citrus, corn, cotton, pecans, peppers, rice, strawberries and ...

By Brian David —  We know that wildfire smoke affects people’s health. Particles of burned plants and trees land on dust particles and are breathed into the lungs. However, this year’s Ferguson Fire not only affected you, it affected your plants. This summer’s Sierra foothill smoke has limited gardening, in part by imposing health restrictions on gardeners. In areas that ...

By Helen Willoughby-Peck —  Most home gardeners who grow tomatoes have experienced  problems with tomato diseases.  Tomatoes can suffer a variety of diseases and environmental factors contributing to poor production, foliage damage, or plant death. Here are a few of them that you might be seeing on your tomato plants this summer with possible solutions to ‘cure’ your plants. Tomato ...

By Helen Willoughby-Peck (UC Master Gardener, Mariposa) It is a good idea to take a walk in your garden every day. It is good for you, but more importantly, it is good for your plants. Observing your plants on a regular basis can help control pests beginning to enjoy your tomatoes before you can. When caught early, pests are usually ...

By Brian David (UC Master Gardener, Mariposa) In Mariposa we can access answers to gardening questions through the University of California’s Master Gardener Helpline. Belinda Gilbert and Diane Timmins, UC Master Gardener Helpline volunteers, explain the helpline process. What is the purpose of the U.C. Master Gardener’s Helpline?  We receive calls from people wanting help identifying insects or plants. Sometimes ...

By Brian David (Mariposa Master Gardener) This year I am welcoming wasps and inviting insects to invade our garden. I am experiencing a paradigm shift (a fundamental change of underlying assumptions). It started when I heard, “Not all insects are bad. In fact, of the 92,00 species that have been identified in the United States, about 87,000 (95%) are either ...

By Brian David —  Efficient transplanting is a gradual process. Changing a plant’s environment and routine shocks them. Hardening off new container seedlings may take two weeks. So, place container seedlings outside for a couple hours their first day, increasing their stay by two hours each consecutive day. If you are gone during the day, place the seedlings in a ...

By Brian David (Mariposa Master Gardener) —  February and March are months to try a spring garden. Spring gardening is a tango with fluctuating temperatures. You may need to combine starting seed indoors with direct outdoor seeding. Spring (cool season) vegetable seeds include several nutrient dense vegetables often planted at the end of summer for fall gardens. Cool weather vegetables ...

By Bob Labozetta (Mariposa Master Gardener) Gardening in this time of increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels, and changing environments is challenging to say the least. In our own locale, we notice significant impact on our backyard habitats: With higher average temperatures and inconsistent precipitation, plants are blooming earlier and growing seasons are becoming unpredictable. Even warm-weather plants like tomatoes ...

By Bob Labozetta — If you are like me, you have already ordered and received vegetable and ornamental seed packets for planting this spring. The worst thing you can do is open them and start planting directly into the garden without carefully reading the cultivation information printed on the packet of seeds. The cultivation information can vary greatly from seed ...