Start The New Garden Year Off Right!

What To Do And When To Do It makes its 2020 debut! Still $20 at the gate! Ten to Noon, January 4th in our classroom or perhaps out in a part of the garden. Whatever happens, we'll be there and hope to see you there! 

Just a few different seed houses to peruse this time of year
before the rain stops and we can begin to plant again.
Always, your questions (about gardening, at least) answered! 

Dress warmly and be ready to get your garden underway for 2020! 

Got a question or want to pay with PayPal - greenteach@gmail.com! Thanks!

Happy New Year!
david

Class Notes for December 8 and 15

Rogers Red Grape

Urban Food Production meets this Sunday, December 8th at The Learning Garden at regular class time, (1:00 PM). The garden is on the campus of Venice High School - which is a 24 acre campus. We are the Northwest corner at the intersection of  Venice Blvd and Walgrove Avenue - our entrance gate is on Walgrove. 

Parking is on the street only. Do NOT park on the high school campus. Gates may be unlocked, but the staff will leave before our class is out and lock your car in. You will not get it back until 7:00 AM Monday. They are merciless!

Dress for foul weather. It will probably be cold and wet.

Coming by bus, the bus stop is at Walgrove. There is one Big Blue Bus that stops here on weekends and there are two Metro buses that stop here (33 and 733). Schedules on Sunday are lousy.

I will have a snack to share, if you like, bring your own snack share

Email or call with  questions. Please note, due to the amount of robocalls I get, you'll need to leave a message and I'll return your call.

Thank you, see you tomorrow, rain or shine!

david

NB This was supposed to post last Friday, not this Friday. Human error.
d

What To Do - December's Version! Dec. 7th!

Some huge runner beans given to SLOLA. They are relatives
to the Red Runner beans, but I don't even know what color
the flowers will be. Did I say these were "huge beans?"

DECEMBER'S WHAT TO DO CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELED. WE WILL NOT HAVE A CLASS IN DECEMBER, BUT WILL RETURN THE 4TH OF JANUARY 2020 AT OUR REGULAR TIME AND REGULAR GARDENING FUN.

The weather was against us, but when we found out we would NOT have power (ie for heat?), we elected to cancel. See us at the next What To Do or on 21 December at sundown (about 5:30 PM) for the Winter Solstice program we are famous for. Bring some kind of snack for everyone to share and join us. Dress warmly!

Thanks to everyone! Hope to see you around the Garden sometime very soon!

david

Huanglongbing Disease Seminar - stop the Asian Citrus Psyllid!

This webinar has come to my attention and I encourage anyone who has citrus or wants citrus to register. This disease is virulent and is destroying citrus plants in California and Florida. Florida is fighting the disease with genetic modification while California has chosen to deal with it in a more sane manner. The first line of defense is knowledge and the second line is to prevent the spread of the insect that carries the disease and thus contain it while more research - hopefully - will help us understand how to deal with this VERY difficult pest on one of our most valuable crops.

If you are growing citrus now or intend to grow citrus in the future, make this a priority. Here is the UCANR post on the seminar: 

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=38842  

We hope by now most people have heard about and are aware of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), a small brown insect that carries a deadly citrus disease called huanglongbing (HLB), threatening all backyard citrus trees as well as the statewide citrus industry.

This insect feeds on newly developed leaves of all varieties of citrus trees and can spread the bacteria that causes HLB. The HLB disease can kill a citrus tree in as little as 5 years and there is so far no cure or remedy.

Argentine ant tending the nymphs of the Asian citrus psyllid. (Credit: B Grafton-Cardwell)

Learn more about ACP and HLB by joining the free UC Ag Experts Talk on December 5 from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. Dr. Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell, Director of Lindcove REC and Research Entomologist at UC Riverside, will address monitoring for these insects and the disease, as well as what Californian residents and backyard gardeners can do if they're in an HLB-infected area.

Register in advance at https://ucanr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DckhbNtyTcWFaES6JPloXA

For PCAs and commercial growers, a separate webinar will take place on December 4, from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. 

https://ucanr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DckhbNtyTcWFaES6JPloXAfor the PCA and commercial grower webinar.

Additional information about ACP and HLB can be found in our Pest Notes: Asian Citrus Psyllid and Huanglongbing Disease.http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74155.html?src=blog38842