Napa Master Gardener Column

By Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County Fall and winter are great times to do sheet composting in your garden. So just what is sheet composting and what are the benefits? Some people call it smothering, sheet mulching or lasagna composting.

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County One of the pleasures of gardening is having the freshest possible ingredients available for cooking. Another one, if you do it right, is saving money.

By Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County Three years ago, I wrote an article about creating African keyhole worm-compost bins in my garden beds. This summer it was time to harvest compost from two of the bins.

By Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County As you drive around Napa Valley at this time of year, you see many beautiful shrubs and trees blooming in a varieties of colors. One standout is crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia), which has been imported from Asia, India and Australia.

By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County Some gardening advice seems so sensible or obvious, or has been repeated so often, that we know it to be true. As gardeners, we need to be careful about falling prey to myths.