Here in Richmond, July passed by in a whirl of bees and pollen.  We have settled into our regular “summer” weather pattern here in the El Cerrito/Richmond area- low clouds and fog until midday when the sun beats back the gray and shines until sunset.  This is great for lettuce, greens, and my beans, but at this rate I might have a ripe tomato in October.

But today I don’t want to talk about the same old patterns in my garden; I want to talk about what is new, exciting, and different!  Yep, I want to talk about my chickens.  First of all, you need to know that I adore chickens.  From their cute little noises to their fluffy little bodies, I find them utterly mesmerizing.  And the fact that they will provide us with manure for the...

I am writing this blog entry from my home in the Richmond Hills where I spend the year watching the sunset move up and down the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais from my front windows.  I am an avid foodie and gardener which means that I am more than a little obsessed with growing edibles.  As part of my never-ending quest to know as much as I possibly can about gardening, I became a Master Gardener.  And as a result of that, I thought it would be fun to share my personal West County perspective on gardening with the world.  So, here we are!

My garden is currently in full-blown flower mode.  After some lovely late season rains we have had a couple of weeks of warm temperatures, the combination of which makes gardeners rub their hands...

By Liz Rottger, Contra Costa Master Gardener.

After listening to an informative and inspiring presentation on French bio-intensive gardening, which transformed not only the speaker’s garden but also her life, I was reminded of Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle—A Year of Food Life, which recorded a similar transformative year in her family’s life. 

Kingsolver’s describes her family’s year-long effort to grow their own food, to make everything they eat from scratch and to buy only food that is locally produced. It turned out to be a challenge that perhaps only someone with Kingsolver’s determination and experience could undertake because, as she points out, most people don’t even...

by Liz Rottger, Contra Costa Master Gardener.

Since I’ve always prided myself on raising my own homegrown tomatoes (even in Richmond), I was a little embarrassed a couple of weeks ago to have to buy several pounds from Monterey Market, the renowned vegetable market in Berkeley, because for the very first time, I don’t have a single ripe tomato in my garden. Not one! How could that be?
 
It would be easy to join everyone else in blaming the gloomy, overcast weather we’ve been having this entire summer in West County, with temperatures hovering in the low sixties as a cold wind blows in off the Bay, day after day. While it’s true that tomato plants are tropical...

by Harriett Burt, Contra Costa Master Gardener.  

A few days ago, the two warmest mornings of the Summer of 2010 saw me moving 4” starts into one gallon cans for sale at the CCMG Autumn Garden event.  I’d put it off, being too busy during the many mild days of early August.  As I stood amidst three dozen one-gallon containers, a garbage can of potting soil, a watering can and a plastic container of granular fertilizer, I reflected on the champion propagators of our local world – the people who LOVE doing this and do it so well -- sometimes even introducing new plants into our wider world with their skill.

Obviously, I was thinking of Kathy Echols of DVC and how much we and...