UCCE youth, family and community development advisor Rose Hayden-Smith toured the White House garden on October 19 as part of the White House Social Fall Garden Tour.  There she was able to explore Michelle Obama's kitchen garden and get a sighting of the President who waved to them as he strolled through the area with the family dog.

Rose leads a statewide initiative for sustainable food systems and has a passionate interest in promoting community and victory gardens.  It is no surprise that she won a Twitter contest prize invitation to the tour by expressing within the website's 140 character limit format why she wanted to visit the White House garden. 

This was Rose's second visit to the White House gardens.  After the tour, the group spent several hours with White House staff learning more about the administration's food and health initiatives.  The stay included touring urban garden projects in Washington D.C. with UC ANR advisor Rachel Surls from the UC Los Angeles extension office.

The social is a part of the Fall Garden Tours in October where invitees and members of the public can view the kitchen garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden and South Lawn of the White House. 

For more information, please follow the links to view the brochure or check out the White House Blog. 

The UCCE Ventura Master Gardeners have been getting some wonderful publicity in county publications. 

Recently "Ventana" a monthly magazine focusing on fine living in Ventura County published a four page spread on the program.  The article describes the program and features a beautiful pictorial of Master Gardener projects and the Hansen Agricultural Center. 

The author also spent time talking with our Master Gardener program coordinator, Leah Haynes, and some of the program volunteers.  According to Leah Haynes, "There are 165 volunteers in Ventura County who put in at least 15,000 hours of community service a year." 

This article in the September 2012 issue can be found at the Ventana website.

The Master Gardeners were also featured in the Local section of the Ventura Star, Tuesday, August 14, 2012 edition.  The two-page article, entitled "Course to Teach Cut-Flower Skills" describes the Master Gardener flower cutting workshop that was held at the Hansen Agricultural Center in August.  Sixty-five people attended this event which featured a presentation by a Master Gardener on the science of planning and growing cut flowers, soil preparation, seed and plant selection.

Check out the Ventura Star to search for this article.

Every year a new group of Master Gardeners are trained who then give back to the community with knowledge and service.  Our office is proud to be associated with these dedicated volunteers and look forward to seeing them spread their seeds of gardening know-how in the county.

The Ventura County Master Gardener program conducted two orientation meetings in early September to recruit new members and introduce the program to interested members of the public.

So far 58 applicants have applied for 35 opening in this year's comprehensive gardening program.  Interviews are currently being conducted and those chosen for the program will receive over 80 hours of horticulture education in basic botany, plant pathology, integrated pest management and irrigation techniques. 

Master Gardener trainees in turn perform 50 hours of apprenticeship and volunteer in Master Gardener projects to earn their certification. 

Master Gardener volunteer efforts can be seen in the county at the Goebel Center in Thousand Oaks, the Camarillo Ranch House, Ormand Beach Wetland, the Hansen Agricultural Center in Santa Paula, Conejo Valley Botanical Gardens and other locations in Ventura County.

Have a pesty problem or other gardening issue?  The program operates a Help Line for home gardeners on Tuesdays and Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.   Volunteers draw on their knowledge, a comprehensive database of relevant information, advisors and other UC experts to dispense useful information to county gardeners.   The Help Line volunteers can be reached at 805-645-1455 or by email at mgventura@ucdavis.edu.

Not a Master Gardener, but would like to attend seminars and workshops?  The Master Gardeners conduct four seasonal Home Garden workshops annually on a variety of garden related topics designed for the home gardener.   The next workshop in November has a holiday theme, "Creating Holiday Gifts from Your Garden," and features fun hands-on projects and demonstrations.  For more details about this workshop, please see this flyer.

Want more information on the Master Gardener program?  Please click here to link to Master Gardener webpages.

Many weed species commonly found in California can be found on the UC IPM website. The site is designed for easy identification.

The identification process is separated by type of weed – broadleaf, grass, sedge, and aquatic. Each of these sections includes: tutorials, high quality photos at multiple life stages, common and scientific names, and recommend management practices.

Resources for home gardeners and agricultural producers are available. 

We also have our own website with all the local weeds that was compiled by Susan Latham, UCCE Master Gardener.