ornamental gardening

Learn how to design your low-water garden with easy plants and great tips to get them started.

Followed by Open Garden and tours of the gardens with Master Gardeners from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Master Gardener Sue Bell will share her expert knowledge on pruning and maintaining a beautiful landscape at home. Sue is a garden consultant and designer and is a veritable fount of information. Come learn how to avoid the "uglies" and "gee, it will grow back again, won't ir?" problems with pruning your ornamentals.

Space is limited. Phone the MetroEd/Erikson office at (408) 723-6450 during regular business hours to sign up, or email RitaB@metroed.net.

Autumn is the perfect time to start planning a drought tolerant garden that saves water, attracts wildlife and enriches the environment.  Learn design basics for a lush and waterwise garden, including plant selection for year-round bloom and eco-friendly planting techniues and ideas to reduce, reuse and recycle landscaping materials from around the home.  

Learn how to have a beautiful garden with less work and less water.  Climate-adapted plants make gardening easy in our year-round dry climate.

Learn simple techniques of sustainable gardening to create and maintain a beautiful ornamental garden that will be attractive year-round while respecting and protecting the environment. Topics include caring for the soil, using efficient irrigation and choosing the right plant for the right place. The course also covers basic design concepts, non-toic pest management and season-appropriate chores to keep your garden looking its very best.

Six consecutive Wednesday evenings from September 17 - October 22, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Register at http://ace.fuhsd.edu or call 408-522-2700.

Sat, Sep 6

You will be introduced to the best of the best, easy-to-grow flowers that have staying power. Common plant foliage will complement and add wonderful effect. Learn which specific varieties do well in arrangements. Save money and have more joy growing your own flower bouquets. Purple orach, colorful amaranths, 10 different alstromerias, purple millet, peonies and long-stemmed roses will be discussed. A slide show is included. Nancy will share 20-plus years of knowledge on selecting and growing local cut flowers. She has been involved with the UC Cooperative Extension trials of over a hundred kinds of flowers to find teh most beautiful. Her work with sunflowers has been featured in Sunset magazine.

Santa Clara County is one of the best places in the world to create a year-round garden, whether you want to grow vegetables or a beautiful sustainable garden full of trees, shrubs, perennials and flowers.  Come learn the basics about our climate and soil and the best practices for creating your ideal garden.  If you are a beginning gardener, you will learn how to get started successfully.  If you have some experience, you'll learn about sustainable practices and appropriate plants to introduce into your garden.  the goal of this class is to enable you to have a successful and sustainable garden in our time and place.

There are six classes on six consecutive Tuesday evenings from October 7 through November 11 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Register at http://www.ci.campbell.ca.us/Recreation/communitycenter

Did you know that by careful planning and plant selection, you can have beautiful flowers in your garden all year long? Find out from Master Gardeners!

Join other gardeners in learning how to save seeds from your favorite summer vegetables and flowers. Followed by Open Garden until 1 p.m.

Nine Palms Ranch Trial,  Spring - Summer 2006

Lead: Laura Balaoro and Milli Wright

Team Members: Jeanie Sunseri, Sandra Tamm, Nella Henninger, Tomoko Kodama

Overview:

In this trial, we were looking for annuals and perennials that make ideal cut flowers for the average home garden. Judging criteria were plant's performance, disease/pest resistance, and production during the whole season allowing for continual harvesting of flowers/foliage. Successful cut flowers stay fresh in arrangements for four days to one week.

We also included some edible plants that are ornamental and can be used with the cut flowers in arrangements.

Soil preparation:

We added composted horse manure to the plot. No additional fertilizer was added.

Seeding and Planting:

Seeding was done in mid-February and transplanted in May. Some varieties needed to be re-seeded
because of our unusually late Spring. Spacing was 18-24". All were planted in full
sun.

Watering:

Plot was watered with drip irrigation for 30 minutes three times a week at start then reduced to 20
minutes three times per week as the plants matured.

Pests and Diseases:

Gophers were the main pests. Trapping was the method used.

Zinnias and cosmos began to mildew in mid August, as the nights became colder. Birds were
eating the sunflower leaves, which may have affected the overall productivity of the plants.