Master Gardener Blog

Sorry, This Blossom Is Taken

So here's this male longhorned bee (Svastra) sipping a little nectar from a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). As the late Mr. Rogers (1928-2003), star of the TV show, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," so often proclaimed:  "It's a beautiful day in the...

Rat Management in School and Community Gardens

It is important for food-safety reasons to manage rats in school and community gardens. Rats and other wildlife can carry a number of diseases that can be deposited in the form of urine and feces on fruit, vegetables, and in the soil. Rats can also...

Ready for Moth Night at UC Davis?

Are you ready to celebrate Moth Night at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis? Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 21. That's when the Bohart Museum will join forces with National Moth Week,...

Saving a Butterfly: In a World Where Kindness Matters

It was a long awaited process, but it's a girl! And she's beautiful! It all began with finding two anise swallowtail chrysalids clinging last July to the fennel stems in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. To protect them from predators and the...

Oak Galls

What are those curious, colorful, odd-looking growths you've seen growing on oak trees? Ever wonder what those little seeds are that jump around on the ground underneath oak trees in July or August? You might be surprised to know these growths on oaks...

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