Food Gardening Specialists

The Master Gardener Food Gardening Specialist program was started in the spring of 2010 with the mission of teaching beginning gardeners how to successfully start and maintain food gardens. The group's initial focus will be on teaching neighborhood workshops.

The Specialists

The Food Gardening Specialists can be reached by email here.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Neighborhood Workshops

The first workshop was held in October in the Skyhawk neighborhood of Santa Rosa.

Our host wanted to learn how to replant her raised bed with appropriate plants for the fall/winter growing season. We started by removing the summer garden plants.

We demonstrated how to prepare and amend the soil.

We also showed how to build an irrigation system coming off an existing hose bib.

Finally, we showed how to plant new seedlings.

Ten days after the workshop, the newly planted seedlings are thriving.

We offer instruction on:

Soil and amendments
Irrigation
Integrated Pest Management
Seeds, transplants and variety selection
Maintenance and harvest.

A workshop in your area:

If you are interested in having the Food Gardening Specialists teach a workshop in your neighborhood, we ask that the group represent at least five households in the area. Each workshop will be different depending on the garden and what the group of neighbors is most interested in learning. If we agree to do a hand-on demonstration as part of the workshop, Master Gardeners will work in a small area of the garden; they should not be expected to transform entire gardens/properties.

In organizing a workshop, a Food Gardening Specialist will interview the host gardener and make a site visit. Lists of any necessary tools, equipment, compost and seedlings will be provided by the Food Gardening Specialist team and should be purchased or collected by the group ahead of the workshop date.

Information Desks:
Santa Rosa: (707) 565-2608
M-F 9-12 1-4
Sonoma: (707) 938-0127 MWF 1-3
email: mgsonoma@ucdavis.edu
(If clicking this link doesn't work, type the email address in your email program)
or bring plant problems in for analysis
Locations/REQUIREMENTS

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