Events on our event calendar fall into one of four general categories: gardening/farming, food preservation, sustainable living, or seed saving, and consist of things like classes, talks, plant sales, seed exchanges, fairs and festivals, movies, and special events.
Calendar
A tour of our local wastewater treatment plant – Silicon Valley Clean Water (SVCW) – located at 1400 Radio Road in Redwood Shores. Take the opportunity to visit the plant that is in the midst of a an over $700 million Capital Improvement Program to update aging infrastructure originally built back in 1982. The plant is a regional facility that serves Belmont, Redwood City, San Carlos and West Bay Sanitary District.
Tour features:
- Secondary treatment and advanced filtration
- Recycled water facility
- Cogeneration of energy from methane gas
- Biosolids production used for composting and farming
- On-site use of recycled water
Please note that no children under the age of 11 are permitted on this tour.
Orchids make beautiful houseplants or patio plants, and flower for a long period of time!
Learn about the basic requirements to grow them – soil, water, fertilizer, light, and possible pests. Different varieties will be discussed, but the easiest ones to grow will be emphasized.
Presenter: UC Master Gardener Joan Cloutier
Seeking Gardening Mentors
La Mesa Verde is a leadership network of urban gardeners building local access to healthy food in San Jose. Mentors from La Mesa Verde help give home gardeners the boost they need to turn their hard work into success. The gardening skills they learn can then be passed along in the community to help other gardeners grow their own food.
UC Master Gardeners partner with La Mesa Verde on this important program. They are looking for 15-20 new mentors this spring. Please consider volunteering to participate as a La Mesa Verde gardening mentor, to share your gardening experience with new gardeners for just a few hours a month. You do not need to be a Master Gardener to be a La Mesa Verde mentor! If you are interested, please attend this meeting.
Sponsor/Partner: La Mesa Verde
Presenter: Master Gardeners of South County
Scion Exchange hosted by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers. The annual Santa Clara Scion Exchange is held every 2nd Saturday in January. Attendees are invited to bring scions, cuttings, divisions, tubers, bare-root plants, unusual seeds, gardening books, catalogs, tools, or any gardening-related items they would like to provide others to enjoy.
Admission during the first hour (10 to 11 am) is limited to local chapter members (proof of membership required). Free admission to the general public begins at 11, with donations gratefully accepted at the door.
While most of the offered scion woods and cuttings are free, a handful of specially sourced varieties have an associated cost. A fruit grower’s dream event, where one can obtain both local favorites and near-forgotten heirlooms.
- Hundreds of varieties of budwood for grafting: apple, pear, quince, plum, peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry, and more
- Cuttings to root: fig, berry, grape, pomegranate, kiwi fruit, mulberry, and more
- Rootstocks and grafting supplies
- Free grafting classes and demos
- Custom and assisted grafting of your selected variety onto a rootstock
- Questions answered, secrets revealed, beginners welcomed
- Bring a list of desired varieties, empty plastic bags, masking tape or labels, and a waterproof pen (or pencil) to label the scions you collect
Please be sure to reconfirm all event details a few days prior to the event…
Master Gardener talk in Sunnyvale.
Master Gardener Barbara Fraser will give tips on growing ferns and other shade-loving plants in the garden. Before moving to California in the late 1990’s, Barbara lived on a very shady wooded lot in Western Pennsylvania. Now, in California, her backyard area is 75% shade. Barbara will share her experiences with you and give helpful information on growing beautiful ferns and flowering plants in the shady garden. We will also tour the Sunnyvale Demonstration Garden and explore the shade-loving plants there, weather permitting.
Presenter: UC Master Gardener Barbara Fraser
Master Gardener talk in Campbell.
Winter is the best time to prune fruit trees because they are dormant and you can see the tree structure. Proper pruning, timing, and technique allow your trees to produce the best fruit. Come join us for a free workshop to learn about pruning fruit trees. Learn the why, how, and when of pruning for best structure and fruit production.
Presenter: UC Master Gardener Allen Buchinski
A tour of our local wastewater treatment plant – Silicon Valley Clean Water (SVCW) – located at 1400 Radio Road in Redwood Shores. Take the opportunity to visit the plant that is in the midst of a an over $700 million Capital Improvement Program to update aging infrastructure originally built back in 1982. The plant is a regional facility that serves Belmont, Redwood City, San Carlos and West Bay Sanitary District.
Tour features:
- Secondary treatment and advanced filtration
- Recycled water facility
- Cogeneration of energy from methane gas
- Biosolids production used for composting and farming
- On-site use of recycled water
Please note that no children under the age of 11 are permitted on this tour.
Master Gardener talk in San Jose.
This is the perfect time to plant fruit trees from “bare root” stock. Plants grown from bare-root often are more vigorous and healthy and it is less expensive to buy a bare-root plant than a nursery plant. How do you find and select the best trees? What is the recommended way to plant, including when and how to prune initially? The answer to that might surprise you!
Learn about some of the less common fruit trees, such as Pomegranate, Jujube, and Mulberry, where to find and buy your own plants, and which fruit tree varieties do best in our area. Come and learn about these topics and much more. See also homeorchard.ucdavis.edu for information on Home Orchards.
Presenter: UC Master Gardener Kalpana Jain
Master Gardener talk in Santa Clara.
Springtime will be here soon and it can be overwhelming when you begin to prioritize what to do in your garden. We’ll share ideas on preparing soils, sowing seeds, getting transplants, fertilizing plants, controlling pests, pruning perennials, mulching, etc.
Presenter: Master Gardener Mint Pasakdee