Too wet to garden? Catch up on UC master gardeners’ videos

Wow, it’s soggy out there today. No gardening in this rain! But it is a perfect time to check out some of the many gardening videos available via the UC Master Gardener Program.

Sacramento County’s video program, headed by master gardeners Kathy Steuer and Mary Welch, is an award winner. These videos are concise  bites, about 4 minutes long, covering topics ranging from orchard mason bees to transplanting cactus to solarizing soil. The blueberry section, the worm composting films and the pruning videos are all terrific resources. The “Sharpening Hand Pruners” video alone has received more than 142,000 views.

(Full disclosure: I’m also a master gardener and appear — well, mostly my hands — in the “Herb Propagation by Division” video with Herb Team co-leader  Ruth Ostroff.)

The Sacramento program’s video library and YouTube channel page also has links to videos from other county programs (including Oregon’s Clackamas County), some area nurseries and the “home office” of the UC master gardener program. Some of these are longer films.

There also are videos available of the speakers at Sacramento’s two “virtual” Harvest Day events in 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, including “Farmer Fred” Hoffman and Green Acres’ Greg Gayton.

The Sacramento page also has a link to the garden-pest video library of short videos and webinars from the UC Integrated Pest Management program. This is quite a list, covering pests from aphids to yellowjackets, plus webinars on management methods and pesticide use. Plenty of informative videos to watch as we wait for the rain to stop and the garden to dry out a bit.

For more information on the Sacramento County master gardener program, go to https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardeners-sacramento-county