We often experience ants in our homes when weather conditions change. They are typically looking for food, water, warmth and or protection from extreme weather conditions.

Ants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera and are close relatives of bees and wasps. The most common outdoor ant found in California is the Argentine worker ant. The Argentine worker ant is approximately 3 millimeters long, dark colored and does not sting. They have no natural enemies.

Their colonies have multiple queens and only the queens lay eggs. An ant’s life cycle moves from egg to larva to pupa to adult. Their nests are normally found in moist soils, under debris or along sidewalks and driveways. Argentine ants are drawn to sweet foods but will also feed on protein (e.g. dead bugs). The Argentine ant will venture up to 100 feet away from the nest to find food, water and shelter inside buildings. Once inside, if ants find food, they will continue to invade until the food source is removed and/or the entryway sealed.

While it is not realistic to eradicate all ants from your backyard, you can effectively reduce the number of ants entering your home by following a 3-Step integrated approach as follows:

Minor Indoor Problem (small trail of ants observed infrequently). Prevent further intrusion by:

1. Identifying the location where the ants are getting into the house. Inspect baseboards, floors, electrical outlets, vents, pipes, drains and walls for any entryways and seal them off (caulk is good for this). Destroy any nesting sites found close to the house. Cut back trees, shrubs or wooded material touching the house and clear away mulch or debris that is next to the house.

2. Clean up food and water sources in the home. All sources of “attractive” food should be removed or securely sealed. Use soapy water to kill ants and eliminate their trails. Moderate (trails of hundreds of ants) and Severe (several hundred to thousands of ants continue to invade for weeks or months). Supplement steps 1 and 2 above with the addition of bait stations as follows:

3. Install bait dispensers around the outside of the house (UC Researchers have had success using bait dispensers such as KM AntPro Liquid Bait Dispenser). Baits are more effective and less toxic than traditional pesticide treatments for ants. Baits are insecticides mixed with materials that attract worker ants. The advantage of a bait station over an insecticide spray is that the spray only kills the worker ant while the bait station allows worker ants to take the bait back to the colony to feed and kill the colony ants, including the queen ant. When all the queens die, the colony is destroyed.

Continue to refill dispensers regularly with liquid borate-based bait until the ant problem ceases. It is critical that you select the right bait/attractant for Argentine ants (liquid baits with 1% or less borate are suggested). Install at least one dispenser on each side of the house, next to structures where ants are trailing (but at least 5 ft. from any nest). Keep ant bait stations out of direct sunlight.

Following the 3-step approach above should correct home ant invasions. For more information visit www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7411.html.

For more information on dealing with the various pests that plague your home and garden, attend the workshop on Integrated Pest Management on May 17, at the Demonstration Garden at the Patrick Ranch Museum. This workshop is part of the Master Gardeners’ current Spring Workshop Series. For information about all the workshops, and to register, go to Workshops — UC Master Gardeners of Butte County (ucanr.edu) . All workshops are free, but registration is required.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4-H, farm advisers, and nutrition and physical activity programs. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the hotline at 552-5812 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.

Eleanor Roosevelt said it well: “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”

Recently I took a mini vacay to the Bay Area, which included visits with my step-mom, Auntie Jeanne and Auntie Pat.

These women are in their mid to late 70s and I admire each one. They read books and have hobbies. None are shy to voice their opinions, have had meaningful careers and share their love freely. I have known these women all of my life and their vitality matches my memories of them at age 20, 40 and 60.

I hope that when I grow up I will have as much moxie and know-how.

Next month will be my birthday, and it’s a big one. A couple of months ago a friend and I took a walk across the Chico State campus.

“Wow, I hadn’t seen so-and-so for a while,” I said. “She’s looking older all of a sudden.”

“That’s the same thing people probably say about us,” my friend replied. “You just see me all the time and you see yourself in the mirror every day. You don’t notice the changes when you watch them slowly.”

That made me look in the mirror.

This impending birthday shouldn’t be a big deal. I might not even think about my age if the social media ads would stop advertising products for “older women” and AARP stopped sending me membership offers (AARP sends these via snail mail, because they know how to reach my demographic).

I’ve been thinking about this big birthday for so many months that I had mentally adjusted to the age. I had to do the math to remember exactly how old I will be next month. Luckily, I chose to laugh at myself rather than worry about early memory loss.

“Getting old isn’t pretty,” I sometimes think when I smear Retinol cream under my eyes. My mom has a skylight in the guest bathroom. When I visit, I put on my makeup in that harsh light and am surprised at the ratio of gray-to-blonde. Thank goodness for the 60-watt dull glow in my own bathroom.

But my perspective changed after visiting all those amazing women in the Bay Area. My Auntie Pat has been in the hospital three times over the past six months. She said her body is not being kind to her.

I don’t see Auntie Pat every day, so I noticed the changes since the last time I visited. She’s still recovering from the recent illness, and needs her cane more often. This didn’t stop her from feeding my younger sister and I carrot cake and talking for hours about this, that and the other thing. She talks with her hands, a family trait, and got giddy when she showed pictures of her new great-grandbabies. We had so much fun that our visit extended into the evening and we decided to drive to Niles Canyon for ice cream and pizza.

After visiting my two aunts and my step-mom, I realized that getting older is absolutely beautiful.

The 10th annual Local Nursery Crawl spans Saturday and today and includes 15 plant nurseries in Butte County.

For the event, participants were offered a flyer with the names of each participating nursery on it. If participants got the flyer stamped by six different nurseries, they could enter into a raffle for a gift certificate at the final nursery they went to. “This event is to get the public to visit/discover the many independent nurseries in the area and inspire loyalty and community support for local business,” states the event’s Facebook page.

This year is Hassur’s “fifth or sixth” year participating in the crawl. At Little Red Hen Plant Nursery she bought dwarf mondo grass she plans to plant in between the sandstones of her walkway.

In 2023, the event was held in February. However, this year it was moved to March.

“It’s been a lot busier with more people coming in,” said Little Red Hen Nursery instructor Karen Brewster. “They’re (customers) more ready to plant. February is too early.”

During the crawl, Little Red Hen Nursery offered 15% off everything except tomatoes.

Fair Street Nursery hosted the Chico Bonsai Society on Saturday. Some of the small trees on display were over 40 years old.

In addition to Fair Street Nursery’s many out door plants for sale, the company also sell indoor plants in a warm heated room. It also sells artisan decorations from local artists for the garden.

At Harvests and Habitats Nursery perennials, vegetables and wildflowers sold the most, said employee Suzie McAllister.

“People are starting to dream about their garden for the spring and summer,” McAllister said.

Harvests and Habitats Nursery owner Sherri Scott said it is nice having the crawl in March because more plants are blooming.

“I like that, but it’s also the really busy time for me planting everything because we grow everything ourselves, or like 95% of it ourselves. … I have not slept,” she said with a laugh.

For those looking a well rounded plant that smells amazing and is low maintenance, McAllister and Scott recommend scented geranium.

“They’re like a low key superhero,” McAllister said. “They don’t have a big showy a blossom, they still attract pollinators and they just smells so good.”

Other plants that are easy to take care of are rosemary, sweet bay and lettuce, Scott said. Another popular option she recommends is succulents.

“It’s just about getting it right,” Scott said.

Euphorbias are one of the most dramatic garden plants, and they happen to do well in our ongoing conditions of drought. The genus is expansive and includes 2,000 species of herbaceous perennials, annuals and biennials, as well as evergreen and deciduous shrubs. You might think you are unfamiliar with this plant family, but one tender (and colorful) variety of euphorbia is customarily purchased during the holiday season: the Poinsettia. The poinsettia’s red leaves surround a “flower” called a cyathium, which is really a structure that consists of fused bracts that form a cup around the (actual) tiny flowers.

Euphorbias originated in southwestern Asia, Europe, Australia and the Mediterranean. They are un-thirsty plants which prefer well-drained soil, and can be grown in either full sun or partial shade.

Euphorbias are not fussy about soil type either; they are tolerant of normal, clay, neutral or acidic soil. And they are easy to maintain: give them a little water to get established, but thereafter allow the soil to dry out between thorough waterings.

Euphorbia characias is perhaps the most commonly seen euphorbia in our area.

The upright stems of this Mediterranean native are crowded with narrow blue-green leaves that form a dome-shaped bush four feet high & wide. Chartreuse or lime green flowers in dense, round to cylindrical clusters appear in late winter and early spring.

Characias is very drought resistant and thrives in part to full sun.

There are many Euphorbia varieties, crosses, and sub-species. Below are a few interesting ones that do well in the north state.

Classified as an Evergreen Spurge, the sub-species “Tasmanian Tiger” grows three feet wide and high with bow-tie like flower bracts edged in white. The conical flower heads appear in spring. Prune spent flower heads and stems down to the base of the plant—new ones will form during the summer. This euphorbia provides interest all four seasons in our mild climate.

Euphorbia “Polychroma” is another showy variety that looks especially lovely alongside spring-blooming tulips and other bulbs. It is also known as cushion spurge. Its bright golden flowers sit atop cushion-shaped light green leaves. This versatile plant is useful in edgings, rock gardens and containers. And autumn brings an extra treat: red foliage color. Trim this plant back hard to four inches in early summer to maintain a bushy, compact size.

Euphorbia “Ascot Rainbow” matures at 20 inches wide by 20 inches high. The edges of its narrow, gray-green leaves are edged in yellow, and it has variegated cream, lime and green flower bracts. In cooler months, the foliage at the ends of stems can take on a rosy hue. This more compact plant is attractive in groupings.

If your garden is plagued by deer and rabbits, they will avoid euphorbias because the stems of these plants contain milky white sap that can be an irritant to the skin or toxic if ingested. For this reason, it is a good idea to handle euphorbias with gloves to avoid getting the sap on your skin or in your eyes. The sap has a latex base, so it is also good practice to clean your pruners after using them on euphorbias, to help maintain a sharp blade.

Euphorbias make unusually attractive cut flowers that can be incorporated in floral arrangements. To prevent the sap from bleeding, dip the stems in boiling water or seal the stems by holding a flame to them for a few seconds before adding them to an arrangement.

The Master Gardeners’ Spring Workshop Series has begun! There are still 13 workshops to come, on a variety of topics between now and May 22. For information about the workshops, and to register, go to Workshops – UC Master Gardeners of Butte County at https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg. All workshops are free, but registration is required.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4-H, farm advisers, and nutrition and physical activity programs. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the hotline at 552-5812 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.

I travel south several times a year with my work, but it’s dramatically different when I can roam as I please. On this recent trip, I visited my hometown and remembered how lucky I was to grow up just a mile from the Carquinez Strait. My sister and I languished for half an hour and ate gelato in Washington Square in North Beach. I unabashedly eavesdropped on a dysfunctional conversation between a father and son and my sister and I counted the couples (young and old) snuggling on blankets on the grass. We strolled through Haight-Ashbury and grooved on Latin Music at the corner bar a few blocks from her funky apartment. I watched seagulls while she did yoga in an Alameda park overlooking the Bay.

Leaving the water behind, I drove through the horse country of Calaveras County with fresh eyes, the rolling green hills were a warm welcome.

On my final trek back to Chico, I dropped back into civilization via a rural route to meet a friend for coffee in Rancho Cordova. As the green hills faded into the backdrop, the modern civilization appeared rather abruptly. Just a few miles before I reached the dense housing developments, I passed roads including Frogs Leap Drive and Bear Hollow. Do any frogs remain in this area, I wondered. Were there bears in some long-gone hollow?

Sometimes I laugh and sometimes I cringe at street names that now seem out of place with a landscape of street lights and stucco, gas stations and places that sell food to eat in your car.

In Chico we have the Almond Orchard shopping center, where there was likely once an almond orchard. In the Bay Area an entire town is called Walnut Creek, named in the 1860s because of the number of walnut trees. Now there are five zip codes in Walnut Creek and you would need to do a long search to find a walnut tree.

We can complain about urbanization or we can keep searching for places to escape on a long weekend and enjoy the history hidden in street names.

In Paradise, you can find Apple View Way, which is just a half a skip from Noble Orchard. I have passed by Lucky John Road many times, and I hope some historian will tell me the real story. I always imagine there was a guy named John who found a very large gold nugget during the Gold Rush. Maybe he bought a big plot of land and found a pretty wife.

Other towns have street names that fit a certain category. In Chico’s case, we have Mangrove, Palm, Spruce, Laburnum, Oleander, Magnolia, Citrus. I looked up the word Arcadian and one definition is “an ideal rural Paradise.”

Elk Grove has many cowboy street names, including Wrangler and Equestrian drives, and roads called Sloughhouse, Eagles Nest and White Rock.

In Durham you won’t wonder why we visit Blossom Lane to view the almond bloom. There’s also a Nut Buggy Lane. You can also find Big Dog Court on the map, which makes me wonder if they named the road rather than posting a “beware of dog” sign.

Some of the charm of new street names is lost in our day of large housing developments. We’ll see streets named along some generic theme, such as female names or flowers. There’s a neighborhood near my nieces’ house in Redding with names out of this world, including Comet Street, Martian and Galaxy Way, Corona, Nebula and numerous planets. Someday, maybe streets will be named after things that are soon to be obsolete, including Landline Telephone Way, Gas Turbine Engine Avenue and Paper Currency Drive.

The annual festival featured environmental education booths, food trucks and vendors, many selling a variety of plants.

Radley got his face painted to look like a character from the video game Minecraft. He said he really enjoyed seeing all of the rocks and minerals that were for sale.

Arbor Day was started by a Nebraskan newspaper editor who greatly valued trees and decided to implement a tree planting holiday in 1872. More than 150 years later, the holiday has grown into a sustainability focused organization, the Arbor Day Foundation.

Oroville is a “Tree City.” The Arbor Day Foundation deems a town a Tree City if there is enough tree cover in the area. The  Arbor Day Foundation’s website lists the following benefits of being a Tree City: “Cooler temperatures. Cleaner air. Higher property values. Healthier residents.”

The Butte Environmental Council tabled at the Arbor Day Festival and offered free giveaways such as seeds and bookmarks. At the event they advertised their new subplots in the Oak Way Community Garden.

“We built smaller subdivisions of our big plots to create more accessibility to people who want to try their hand gardening … just to create equity and access,” said Butte Environmental Council executive director Patrizia Hironimus.

A part of Hironimus’ main focus is to get the community civically engaged in fun and free ways that benefit the environment.

“I learned that people who are civically engaged are more likely to graduate, to graduate on time and be civically engaged later on in life,” Hironimus said.

The Chico Bonsai Society displayed and sold a variety of bonsai trees at the event. Martin Schwab, treasurer of the Chico Bonsai Society, said growing bonsai trees teaches “patience.”

He pointed to a bonsai tree with a thick trunk and large fuchsia flowers.

“That one there is probably about 20-years-old … somebody has had that in their care for that long,” Schwab said.

One of the bonsai trees he brought to the event was a juniper he’d been growing for one year.

“Bonsais are pretty low maintenance, but they require a lot of time,” he said.

On top of patience, Schwab said bonsais can teach about “understanding.”

“Every once in a while a tree will die,” Schwab said. “And so I guess you learn a little bit about mortality.”

An attendee at the event pointed at a maple bonsai tree and asked Schwab if the tree was “a marijuana plant.” The two laughed, and Schwab said that growing marijuana the way you grow a bonsai tree probably wouldn’t work too well.

Charlotte Freer, owner of Unique Gardens and Gifts, sold plants, earrings and garden decorations at the the festival. Tomato plants were her top seller.

A tip she offers customers who by tomato plants is to cut the bottom two leaves off of the stem, and then plant it deep in the soil.

All succulents are able to store water and food in their leaves, stems and roots. These stored nutrients can be released when needed. This makes them drought tolerant. Succulents require good drainage, deep but intermittent water, bright light and good air circulation. The soil should be open and airy with low organic matter.

Many gardeners grow succulents in the Crassulaceae family. Among the most popular are echeveria, graptopetalum, aeonium and sempervivum. Echeveria, graptopetalum and aeonium are hardy to USDA zones 9-12 (or Sunset zones 8, 9, 12-24); while the hardier sempervivum can thrive in a broader range, down to zone 5 (or Sunset zones 2-24, according to the “Sunset Western Garden Book”).

Because many purchased succulents are unmarked, while others are given by friends as cuttings, it can be difficult to know the genus of a particular plant. This is especially the case because the genera of echeveria, sempervivum and graptopetalum are similar in appearance. However, careful observation will aid in identifying succulents. First, look to see if the succulent is spiky or chubby and whether it forms rosettes. What is the shape of the leaves? Look at size, texture and color. Notice if offsets hang from the edges of a rosette, or attach to its center.

Echeverias are valued for their colors and variations. Native to the Americas, their rosettes range in size from three-quarters of an inch to 20 inches in diameter. Echeverias have thicker and wider leaves than sempervivums. While both include varieties commonly called “hens and chicks” they are from different genera. The leaves of echeveria are spoon-shaped and gray, green or bluish in color. These plants flower in the warmer months. Their bell-shaped flowers appear on stalks that rise up through the leaves and can be white, orange, pink or red. Echeveria offsets (chicks) grow out from a single base stem and form clumps.

Sempervivums are native to Europe. Their value as talismans is reflected in their name semper (always) and vivus (living). This reputation comes from their ability to survive in freezing weather while their leaves stay green. Sempervivums are commonly called houseleeks or hen and chickens. Open rosettes range from one to five inches across and form clumps to two feet or wider. The leaves of sempervivum are narrower than those of echeveria, they have pointy tips and are gray-green to red-brown in color. Small pink, red or orange star-shaped flowers arise on fleshy stems to 10 inches tall. These succulents reproduce from offsets attached to a stolon (a stem that can take root). The stolon breaks easily, allowing the tiny offsets to roll away before forming roots.

Graptopetalum are native to South America. These succulents are so closely related to echeveria that they hybridize to form the intergeneric hybrid x graptoveria. The rosettes are two to five inches in diameter and have gently pointed chubby leaves, noticeably thicker than those of echeveria. The rosettes grow at the tips of ever-lengthening stems, creating a low cascading grouping about 12 inches tall. Commonly called Mexican Ghost Plant, their leaves are a pale, chalky, ghostlike gold or green. With partial shade and regular water the color changes to a mauve blue. The flowers are star-shaped, large, white-and-red or yellow and one-quarter of an inch in diameter. They bloom in spring and early summer.

Graptopetalum reproduces by rosettes that break off and root. When looking at “mystery” succulents think in terms of leaf shape, color and thickness.

Then look to see if there are offsets. Are the offsets located on stolons or attached to a main stem? Watch for flowers and see if they are bell shaped or star shaped. All of these characteristics will provide information about the genus of the “mystery” succulent.

Want to learn more? Attend the workshop on succulents on April 19, part of the Master Gardeners’ Spring Workshop Series. For information about all the workshops, and to register, go to Workshops – UC Master Gardeners of Butte County at https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg. All workshops are free, but registration is required.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4-H, farm advisers, and nutrition and physical activity programs. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the hotline at 552-5812 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.

During the Garden Blitz community volunteers from throughout the county roll up their sleeves and pitch in to help build and install vegetable garden beds at homes in their communities.

“It’s like the barn-raising days of old,” said Pamm Larry, director of the network. “It’s a great way for people in the community to pay it forward to others in the community, to help families in need become more food secure. When we are individually food secure, the whole community is food secure.”

The nonprofit needs volunteers to help build and install approximately 125 raised 4-by-4 foot and 4-by-8 foot beds, complete with hardware cloth, soil, mulch and vegetable plants. Building and installation dates for Chico are April 5 through 7 and in Oroville and Paradise, April 12-14. Volunteers with pick-up trucks are especially needed as are folks who can operate tractors with a bucket or skid steer. For those who volunteer with pickup trucks, the food network will supply gas cards if needed.

Work for the Garden Blitz is already underway at Achieve Charter School of Chico and Ridgeview High School where students, under the direction of Hands On Tools Mobile Construction Training staff, are building some of the beds.

“We’re so excited to be working with students who are excited about this project,” said Larry. “They really get a kick out of using the tools and seeing the beds come together through their handy work.”

The premise of the Garden Blitz, now in its fifth year, is similar to the Victory Gardens of WWII. In that instance the government mobilized and put huge resources into supporting and encouraging everyone to grow gardens in backyards, front yards, churches, businesses and community spaces. Through this nationwide effort to become more food secure, 42% of the nation’s vegetables and fruits were grown in Victory Gardens. Today local food, including gardens, only supplies less than 2 percent, according to Larry.

“We are living in uncertain times right now and the food system is changing. Globally it’s imploding as war impacts the supply chain. The experts I follow project that food prices could double again this year,” said Larry. “I believe it’s important for people to become more self sufficient in these uncertain time especially, when it comes to feeding their families.”

Garden Blitz is part of the local food network’s 1,000 Acres More Project which aims to create community gardens in backyards and at schools, churches and community centers throughout the county so 1,000 acres or more are in food production. Since the blitz started five years ago, 415 garden beds have been installed and families are grateful to have them.

“Foodbanks are overburdened because of the increase of families in need of help. Some of the families we’ve installed gardens for tell me they’ve had to choose between keeping a roof over their head and feeding their kids,” said Larry. “They are so thankful and really appreciate that they can grow some of their own food. The garden beds don’t take care of everything but they certainly help. Every little bit helps.”

While the beds are available for purchase at a cost of $185 for a 4-by-4 foot bed and $275 for a 4-by-8 foot bed, most of the beds are provided to families through a scholarship program. The scholarship funding come through Adventist Health Feather River Health Foundation, the Lundberg Family Foundation through the North Valley Community Foundation and Chico Natural Foods Round Up Program. Larry hopes the scholarship funds this year will cover the costs of 100 garden boxes but said that will depend on the final costs of the materials which are being locally sourced.

For more information about the blitz including scholarship, purchase and volunteer applications visit the food network’s website at www.bclocalfood.org.

Oroville Botanic Gardens and Educations Center in partnership with the city and chamber of commerce are hosting the fifth annual event designed to educate people on maintaining and expanding natural resources in the community and at their own homes.

“Oroville is an amazing town,” said Raeshae Shane, OBGEC vice president. “We hope the festival helps to bring people a passion for the city they live in and in the betterment of Oroville’s natural resources and all the beauty they have to offer.”

The free community event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Oroville Convention Center, 1200 Myers St.

The event will open with a presentation of the Tree City USA flag by the Arbor Day Foundation to the city of Oroville, which has been Tree City USA for more than four decades.

“We’re very excited that Oroville is part of Tree City USA, “ said Shane. “It’s a big mission for the Oroville Botanic Gardens and Education Center to bring awareness and protection to trees already here and to work on restoring trees that have been lost.”

Presentations during the event include a bonsai demonstration by the Chico Bonsai Society; woodcarving by O’Rourke’s Outdoor Adventures and Cal Fire-Butte County will be there with its smoke house to teach kids fire safety. The Butte County Fire Safe Council will bring a goat to raise awareness about goat grazing for fire fuel reduction. K Organics will be presenting information on bio char and soil health and the Butte County Resource Conservation District will also be hosting a booth. Vice Mayor Eric Smith will do a presentation based on Dr. Seuss’ book “The Lorax.”

The Lake Oroville Area Garden Club will offer a rose propagation activity. The Rainforest Art Project will also be set-up to allow children and adults the opportunity to help create one of the 60 tile mosaic murals slated for installation along a 600-foot wall on Table Mountain Boulevard near the Feather River Fish Hatchery.

Treetop Permaculture will be giving away 5,000 tree saplings to people whose properties were impacted by the North Complex which was made of the Bear and Claremont fires. While trees will be given away on a first come, first served basis, those wishing to lock in receipt of free trees may register in advance at https://forms.gle/Br1Br7TFQi5d1o1XA.

“Although the 5,000 tree giveaway is for Bear Fire survivors, we will likely have plenty left over and, if so, we would be happy to help anyone who is replanting from fire damage,” said Matthew Trumm, Treetop Permaculture founder.

Ready Racoon, Smokey Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog will also be attending the festival as will 45 local vendors and three food trucks including Churros Daisy, Farm To Fork and Will’s Catering. There will also be a beer garden for those 21 and older.

Raffles will be held throughout the day with all proceeds benefitting OBGEC’s gardens, education programs and community work.

“We are encouraging people to come to the festival to meet the amazing, fun educational vendors who will help teach them about how to improve the quality of nature here in Oroville,” said Shane. “We hope that as a result of attending the festival more members of the community will help make the community a better place by volunteering for local environment-related nonprofits, planting gardens and trees at their homes and teaching children to care for the environment.”

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Gridley, with the help of generous grants from the Episcopal Foundation of Northern California and California Alliance for Community Composting, has transformed the lot next door to the church at 450 Jackson St. into a garden and composting center for the community: a place to grow food or learn how to garden, a drop-off site for compostable kitchen scraps, and a peaceful outdoor space for people to enjoy.

The Garden at St. Timothy’s opened to the public in May 2023 with 20 newly-built and filled garden beds for rent in the following sizes: 5-by-6 foot (30 square feet) at $15 per year, 5-by-8 feet or 4-by-10 feet (40 square feet) at $20 per year, and 5-by-10 feet (50 square feet) at $25 per year. Each bed has drip irrigation. The yearly enrollment price includes both water and irrigation supplies, which are provided by St. Timothy’s church. The system is on a timer and waters automatically so that gardeners don’t have to worry about daily watering. To rent a plot, email st.timothygarden@gmail.com or call 530-218-6636.

The idea for a community garden at St. Timothy’s began back in 2015 with the Gridley Community Roots Garden, which closed in 2018. In addition to the individual garden plots for rent, the church’s relaunch of the garden includes a teaching garden which doubles as growing space for food to give away to the community, a children’s garden and mud kitchen (for messy outdoor play), an outdoor sink and potting area, and of course shaded seating and pleasant
surroundings for those who gather.

The Drop in the Bucket composting program at St. Timothy’s started in August 2023 with generous help from Butte Environmental Council. Anyone in the community may sign up to drop off compostable kitchen materials, for example: fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, paper napkins (no meat, bones, fat, oil or dairy).

The composting program at the garden is expanding thanks to a grant from California Alliance for Community Composting funded by Cal Recycle.

St. Timothy’s currently composts about 75 pounds of kitchen scraps weekly, with the capacity (and goal) to triple that
amount, significantly reducing the amount of organic waste going to the landfill. All compost produced at the garden will be used in the garden or shared with those who donate kitchen scraps.

To sign up to bring kitchen scraps to The Garden at St. Timothy’s, go to becnet.org/composting and scroll down to find the links to Gridley. When you sign up, you can request a complimentary 5-gallon bucket with a lid.

The Garden at St. Timothy’s is part of a larger effort by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California (and the Episcopal Church across the U.S.) to return its unused property to agrarian uses. Plenty of grant money is available for garden and farm projects. Locally, St. Timothy’s Church wanted to offer Gridley a garden that is both useful and beautiful, to encourage people to grow food with their neighbors and to increase food security in the community.

With faith that the grant funds would come through, St. Timothy’s began preparations for the garden in July 2022 — cutting weeds and clearing rubbish, grading and leveling the ground and solarizing the soil to kill weeds. The church paid for a new chain link fence on the alley side of the garden.

By fall 2022, volunteers were digging trenches, repairing existing piping and installing new in-ground irrigation pipe and sprinkler valves for the watering system. Old lumber left over from the first garden was repurposed to build a potting bench, outdoor sink and mud kitchen for children.

In March 2023, new redwood was purchased to construct the garden beds, and many volunteers showed up to  tackle the job of filling the beds with soil and compost. Pathways between beds were covered with donated wood chips.

The newest addition to the garden is an 8-by-16 foot greenhouse that is currently under construction. Other plans include comfortable benches and a small fountain at the center of the garden, espaliered fruit trees, a rainwater recovery system and a redwood deck at the front garden entrance.

Gardeners and volunteers at The Garden at St. Timothy’s get together monthly to learn more about gardening and preserving food while enjoying each other’s company. All are welcome to attend the meetings which take place in the church offices.

You don’t need to be an experienced gardener to get started at St. Timothy’s. There are lots of resources and support (everything from tools to seeds), as well as guidance from UC Master Gardeners of Butte County. A recent seed-starting event at the garden attracted a friendly mix of new and experienced gardeners and volunteers who had fun planting seeds in flats (for transplanting outside later this spring). Other recent events included free public talks about composting and the 1,000 Acres More program by Amy Roseman of Butte County Local Food Network.

Butte County Local Food Network has donated a “Free the Food” stand to The Garden at St. Timothy’s, so that gardeners can share their produce with the community, and the community can bring food to share with others as well: fresh, whole vegetables and fruits are welcome. The food stand will soon be located in front of the church at 410 Jackson St.

Volunteers are needed for a variety of projects at The Garden at St. Timothy’s, ranging from garden maintenance and composting to building projects, publicity and social media. If you would like to learn more about what’s going on, volunteer to help or donate to the garden, email st.timothygarden@gmail.com.

The Garden at St. Timothy’s is growing, thanks to the many gardeners, volunteers and other folks who have provided ideas, effort, enthusiasm and support. There’s plenty of room in the garden and it’s always open — come and take a look.

The Master Gardeners’ Spring Workshop Series has begun. There will be 15 more workshops on a variety of topics (including composting) between now and May 22. For information about the workshops, and to register, go to Workshops – UC Master Gardeners of Butte County at https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg. All workshops are free, but registration is required.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4-H, farm advisers, and nutrition and physical activity programs. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the hotline at 552-5812 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.