Tips for the February Garden 

Tips prepared by the Alameda County Master Gardeners

• Prune Fuchsias
• Start seeds (indoors) of warm season crops requiring 4 – 8 weeks of growth before setting out. These include tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and basil. An article that can help get you started is available by clicking here.
• Consider whether your fruit trees need a dormant oil spray if you have had problems in the previous growing season. The UC Davis Home Orchard site can help.

Nearly 500 youth weeded, shoveled, mulched, planted and learned gardening skills in the Gardens at Lake Merritt as participants in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Monday, January 16, 2012.

“It is a wonderful thing to see all these young people coming together to improve their community,” said Mayor Quan.  This is the biggest MLK Day project in Oakland today.”

Special thanks to Justice Corps, Climate Corps, Americorp Vista, the Sierra Club, Cal Corp, the Coast Guard, Oakland Public Works, Oakland Parks and Recreation and the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt  for a tremendously successful service day in the Gardens and Lakeside Park.

In addition, thanks to Waste Management for supplying the Gardens with 70 yards of compost and to Malibu Compost for their ongoing support of the Gardens.

Park Supervisor Tora Rocha, lead coordinator of the day’s activities, which included 22 projects in the Gardens, said, “This is amazing, everyone is working so hard; these volunteers are making Oakland proud.”

Community Volunteer Work Party Events

January 7, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Overall Gardens and the Mediterranean Garden . 

January 16, Monday – 8:30am-1:00pm: Martin Luther King Day of Service in Lakeside Park and The Gardens at Lake Merritt.  A perfect opportunity to contribute to your community side-by-side with other civic minded neighbors and garden lovers. Join Mayor Jean Quan and Councilperson Nancy Nadel in park and garden beautification projects.  There is a project for all levels, from weeding and mulching to tree planting.

January 21,  Saturday- 9am-12pm: Palmetum, Rhododendron, and Sensory Gardens

In the event of rain, we’ll meet behind the lathe house/Vireya display garden, where we will plant cuttings. Tea and cookies will be served!

Bring a friend and a garden tool. When volunteering, receive a parking pass at the kiosk by telling the attendant you are with the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt.

Free Tours of the Gardens at Lake Merritt

Tours held Saturday, January 7 and Saturday, January 21 at 10:00am. These free, docent-led tours feature the Gardens’ unique horticultural collections. The 30-minute tours are designed for the entire family.  Kids will love it. The tour begins at the Sensory Garden. For more information about the tours, or to schedule a private group tour, contact Ron at ronele@earthlink.net

Shows and Exhibitions

Bay Island Bonsai will host its Annual Bonsai Exhibition January 14-15 at the Lakeside Park Garden Center from 10am to 4pm both days.  A Bonsai auction will be held Saturday at 1pm (preview begins at noon). This exhibition is free to the public.

For more information call 510-919-5042 or visit www.bayislandbonsai.com

The GSBF Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (formerly the GSBF Collection North) is the home to some of the finest Bonsai in Northern California.  Northern California’s only public bonsai collection is the Demonstration Garden at Oakland’s Lakeside Park. It was built, is staffed and maintained by volunteers and is supported entirely by donations.  Bonsai Garden Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11am-3pm; Saturday, 10am-4pm; and Sunday, noon-4pm.

This permanent collection assures that these precious trees and stones by outstanding masters and collectors will be preserved for everyone’s enjoyment. More than 50 superb bonsai and many viewing stones (suiseki) are on display at any given time. The collection is changed regularly, so visit several times a year. Chairman is  Gordon Deeg. Curator Kathy Shaner is the only Japanese-certified bonsai master in the United States. Our sister bonsai collection is the Golden State Bonsai Collection at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino near Pasadena, California.

Volunteer docents provide you with a self-guiding key sheet describing each tree and stone. They can help with further information about the landscape plants, Japanese gates, bonsai in general, and bonsai clubs.

Completion of this open air cultural museum has been made possible through the support of the Oakland City council and its Parks and Recreation Department and Golden State Federation officials.

The enthusiasm of volunteer labor by members of the various northern California clubs, their spouses and friends plus the generosity of commercial concerns have been invaluable. The beauty of this garden has been achieved through hard work, success and few failures by a dedicated force of volunteers.

Trees selected for the Garden number over 250 to supply a rotating display. These trees require constant care. Tree caretakers will work under Curator Kathy Shaner’s, direction.

ADMISSION is free; donations to help maintain and improve the garden are gratefully accepted.

Although it is cold outside, the early months of the year are important for getting your garden off to a good start. The following gardening tips are provided by the Alameda County Master Gardeners. http://acmg.ucdavis.edu/ Stop by the Master Gardeners’ Trials Gardens located in the Edible Garden. 

January

• Plan your summer garden. For vegetable variety recommendations for areas near coastal California, consider the recommendations from our test garden. Another useful resource for gardeners whose plots are influenced by the San Francisco Bay’s maritime weather is Plant Recommendations West of the East Bay Hills.
• Buy seeds.
• Plant bare root fruit and shade trees, roses, shrubs and vines. For information of fruit tree varieties, check out UC Davis’ Home Orchard site.
• Plant bare root artichokes, asparagus, blackberries, grapes, raspberries, rhubarb and strawberries.
• Start seeds (indoors) of cool season leafy vegetables (lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, etc), Brassica family crops (broccoli, spring cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) and leeks.
• Prune dormant deciduous plants such as flowering vines, fruit and shade trees, grapes, roses
  and hydrangeas.
• Prune salvias, penstemons, butterfly bush, California fuchsia and other summer-blooming perennial shrubs

Pink Passion Flower in the Med Garden. Flowering most of the year, its fruits are a favorite of the Garden's squirrels.

Free Garden Tours December 3 and December 17 at 10:00am. These free, docent-led tours feature the Gardens’ unique horticultural collections. The 30-minute tours are designed for the entire family.  Kids will love it. The tour begins at the Sensory Garden. For more information about the tours, or to schedule a private group tour, contact Ron at ronele@earthlink.net

Community Volunteer Work Party Events

December 3, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Overall Gardens and the Mediterranean Garden . The more the merrier!!

December 17, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Palmetum, Rhododendron, and Sensory Gardens

As autumn weather moves into the rainy season, the weather becomes more unpredictable.  If it is rainy, we’ll meet behind the lathe house/Vireya display garden, where we will plant cuttings. Tea and cookies will be served!

Bring a friend and a garden tool. When volunteering, receive a parking pass at the kiosk by telling the attendant you are with the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt.

Holiday Fun and Cheer: Holidays at Dunsmuire , 2960 Peralta Oaks Drive,  Weekends through December 18. www.dunsmuir.org

Upcoming Events

Bay Island Bonsai will host its Annual Bonsai Exhibition January 14-15 at the Lakeside Park Garden Center from 10am to 4pm both days.  A Bonsai auction will be held Saturday at 1pm (preview begins at noon). This exhibition is free to the public.

For more information call 510-919-5042 or visit www.bayislandbonsai.com

Free Garden Tours November 5 and November 19 at 10:00am. These free, docent-led tours feature the Gardens’ unique horticultural collections. The 30-minute tours are designed for the entire family.  Kids will love it. The tour begins at the Sensory Garden.

Orchid Society Show in the Lakeside Park  Garden Center, Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6, 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Community Volunteer Work Party Events

November 5, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Overall Gardens and the Mediterranean Garden 

November 19, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Palmetum, Rhododendron, and Sensory Gardens

Bring your gloves, favorite garden tool, and a friend. When volunteering, receive a parking pass at the kiosk by telling the attendant you are with the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt

The following article is an excerpt from a talk given in the Gardens at Lake Merritt by native bee advocate Celeste Ets-Hokin.

Eighty percent of the planet’s 250,000 flowering plants, including much of our food, depend on pollinating insects.  Bees are the most important pollinators for maintaining our food supply and keeping ecosystems alive.

Why are bees unique pollinators? Most insects, unlike bees, land on a flower to bask, find a mate, drink nectar or eat. Flower pollen adheres to them and brushes off on subsequent blooms they visit.

 Bees are different. The female bee deliberately collects pollen to provision her nest. In her quest for pollen, a female bee may visit hundreds of flowers during a single foraging trip.

There are approximately 4,000 native bee species in North America and some 1600 species in California. The honey bee, brought to North America in the 1600s by European settlers, is different from our native bees. Honey bees are highly social and live in colonies comprised primarily of female workers and a single egg-laying queen.  Native bees are mostly solitary. Each female bee builds and provisions a nest in which to lay her eggs.  These nests are mostly built in the ground or in a wood cavity.

The female bee lays a series of eggs in her tunnel nest, each one contained in an individual compartment or cell. Generally, each generation of offspring will include both males and females, with females laid at the back of the nest, and males occupying the cells nearest to the nest entrance.  She creates the partitions between the cells with materials collected from the environment, such as mud or leaves.

Solitary native bees are not aggressive, and many have only a mild sting. Male bees have no stinger whatsoever.  North American bees range widely in size, from tiny sweat bees measuring less than ¼” in length, to robust carpenter bees and bumble bee queens, often exceeding an inch. They also vary widely in colors and patterns — from metallic green or iridescent blue, to red, black, grey, brown, yellow, and even spotted.

Native bees are far more efficient than honey bees at pollinating crops such as apples, cherries, squash, watermelon, blueberries, cranberries and tomatoes. Native bees currently contribute some $3 billion each year in crop pollination serves. Recent research suggests that native bees can pollinate nearly all of our current crops if given sufficient habitat.

Natural bee habitat areas, however, are steadily diminishing making residential gardens increasingly important as habitat for many bee species. By following the three “build it and they will come”principles below, both gardeners and growers will enjoy the rewards of prodigious pollination services.

Plant a variety of bee-friendly plants with different bloom periods to ensure a continuous supply of pollen and nectar throughout the spring, summer and fall nesting seasons. Be sure to include a selection of native plants as these plants are best adapted to the region and therefore attract regional native bees. Native plants offer the additional advantages of generally requiring less water, little or no fertilizer, and providing habitat for other beneficial insects, birds and wildlife.  

Create nest sites by leaving areas of undisturbed, un-mulched soil and by offering wood nests. Bare soil will provide nesting opportunities for the 70% of our native bees that nest in the ground. Mulch prevents females from establishing their ground nests, and tilling can destroy existing ones. The remaining 30% of our native bees are wood-nesting, and will benefit from snags or stumps left in place, or by the placement of artificial tunnel nests around your property.

Avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides. Pesticides will harm not only our native bees, but a spectrum of beneficial insects that would otherwise naturally control garden and crop pests.

For information on selecting the best seasonal bee plants for California native bees, visit nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens.  For general information on native pollinators and how to attract them to your gardens, parks, open spaces and farms, visit the Xerces Society website at www.xerces.org.    

Celeste Ets-Hokin is dedicated to promoting awareness of native bees, their vital role in our ecosystems, and the measures required to ensure their conservation.  She is dedicated to fostering a transition to a more conservation based system of agriculture, which supports and depends on biodiversity.

Her North American Bee Calendars, created to assist gardeners in identifying and attracting native bees through photos and descriptions of distinguishing characteristics, emergence times, nesting habits and recommended floral resources for each featured bee genus, is a tremendous step forward in raising awareness of the critical role native bees play in the health and well being of the planet.

In addition, Celeste is collaborating with the Alameda County Master Gardeners in the Trials Garden located in the Gardens at Lake Merritt. She has created a native bee garden area including native bee attracting plants and nesting blocks for the habitat. It is a beautiful and buzzing area of the garden.

Celeste Ets-Hoskin can be reached at celeste.ets@comcast.net.

The highly informative talk was part of the Alameda County Master Gardeners 2011 Speaker Series.  The 2011 Series concluded in October 2011 and will resume in the summer of 2012.

The Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt are offering free tours of The Gardens Saturday February 4  and Saturday February 18 at 10:00am.  The tours begin at the Sensory Garden.

The tour, lasting approximately 30 minutes, will feature the Gardens’ many unique and nationally renowned horticultural collections. Tours are designed to be enjoyed by the entire family. Kids will love it.

For more information regarding The Gardens at Lake Merritt tours, or to arrange a private group tour, contact Ron at ronele@earthlink.net.

Special October Events 

Free Garden Tours every Saturday at 10:00am. These free, docent-led tours feature the Gardens’ unique horticultural collections. The 30-minute tours are designed for the entire family.  Kids will love it!

October 8-9, Saturday-10am-5:pm; and Sunday-11am-4:30pm: Annual Bonsai Exhibition and Show. Demonstrations and workshops, with Japanese trained Bonsai Master Demonstration 1:00pm on Sunday. 

October 9, Sunday – 5:30-9:00pm:  Free Moon Viewing Festival, presented by the Oakland-Fukuoka Sister City Association. A Bonsai Garden Open House begins at 5:30. Entertainment begins at 6:30. At 7:30, the East Bay Astronomical Society will offer moon (and planet) viewing from several telescopes in the Gardens. In addition, delicious Bento dinner boxes will be available in the Bonsai Garden by reservation only. Call 482-5896 to order your Bento dinner. 

October 15, Saturday – 10am-4pm: Learn  “The Art of Pruning” with the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club in the Japanese Garden. The Club has worked to restore and maintain this garden since 1985. Special emphasis will be on pruning pine trees.

October 22, Saturday – noon-1:00pm:  “Choosing and Planting Good Landscape Plants,” presented by Meredith Kaplan, Master Gardener, in the Alameda County Master Gardeners’ Trials Garden located in the Edible Garden.

October 26, Wednesday – 9:30-12:30pm: “Golden Gate Audubon Society Free Lake Merritt Bird Walks.” Meet at the spherical cage near the Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue.

October 28, Friday – 7:30pm: Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society, Auction and Sale in the Lakeside Park Garden Center.

October 29, Saturday – 8:30-3:30 pm: The Alameda County Master Gardeners will hold their 9th annual “Practical Gardening: Sustainability From the Ground Up” seminar  Saturday, October 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Lakeside Park Garden Center and the Gardens at Lake Merritt. See details in “Master Gardener Fall/Winter Seminar” article on this website or go to www.acmg.ucdavis.edu. Don’t miss the great line-up of presentations. 

October 29, Saturday – 11:30 am: “Potions and Lotions: Herbal Remedy Workshop” in the Hope Garden (across from the Sensory Garden and adjacent to the Edible Garden).  Learn about teas and salves made from herbs commonly found in the home garden. Demonstrations and sampling.

Community Volunteer Work Party Events

October 1, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Mediterranean Garden

October 15, Saturday- 9am-12pm: Palmetum, Rhododendron, and Sensory Gardens

Bring your gloves, favorite garden tool, and a friend. When volunteering, receive a parking pass at the kiosk by telling the attendant you are with the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt.