Gardening activities for the fall season
Several garden-related organizational events are coming up this week and next.
Native Plant Sale — Watsonville Wetlands Watch is holding a curbside pick-up Native Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct 17. Proceeds will go directly to supporting the youth education and wetland restoration efforts. Choose and reserve your plants now — don’t wait for the last minute — for the best selection. Visit the website www.WatsonvilleWetlandsWatch.org for a full plant list and order details. If you have no room in your garden for more native plants, you can still support habitat restoration and youth education programs by sponsoring a plant. Visit the website to sponsor and select native plants that interns will plant on your behalf in the wetland habitats.
Established in 1991, Watsonville Wetlands Watch is dedicated to preserving, restoring, and fostering an appreciation for the wetlands of the Pájaro Valley. The education programs reach more than 4,500 local students each year in outdoor hands- on learning, leadership development, and career and technical education for environmental work. Welands Watch restores and preserves 1,500 acres of wetlands and their associated uplands and trails which sustain more than 270 species of birds, and 23 species of native plants and animals that are threatened, endangered, or of special concern.
Fall Harvest Festival — Celebrate community and the abundance of the fall harvest with UC Santa Cruz’s annual Fall Harvest Festival scheduled for Oct. 5-10. A collaboration between the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food
Systems, Life Lab and students of UCSC’s Food Systems Working Group, this year’s festival will feature a series of free, interactive online events for all ages. To register, visit www.lifelab.org/fallbenefit. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For information on sponsorships, email nikki@ lifelab.org. For a schedule of the week’s events and registration instructions, visit www.casfs.ucsc.edu
Fall Plant Sale — UC Master Gardeners of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties will hold its
Fall Plant Sale in October. The online pop-up nursery opens Oct.13, according to a release from the organization. The sale ends Oct. 30, or until inventory runs out. The fall plant collection includes seasonal vegetables, herbs, California natives, succulents and more. A limited collection of seasonal decorations, such as wreaths and centerpieces, handmade by UC Master Gardeners, will be offered as part of the sale. Using social distancing practices, all orders will be fulfilled by appointment only at its greenhouse at 1432 Abbott St., Salinas. For information about the plant sale, visit www. mbmg.ucanr.edu.
Heritage Apple Sale — Freddy Menge and Ellen Baker of Epicenter Nursery continue their weekly sale of incomparable heritage apples from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday at the Westside Farmer’s Market, Mission Street Extension & Western Drive in Santa Cruz. I’m there bright and early each Saturday to purchase enough apples to have with my lunch through the week, though this time, I couldn’t resist buying a few extras because it was too hard to choose from among the delectable fruit on display. So far, the one I’m drooling over the most is called Red on Red.
The exterior is a beautiful glossy red, looking a bit like a Red Delicious, but there any comparison ends, as unlike mushy old Red Delicious, this is a SUPERB apple. Not only is the tender flesh sweet, crisp, low in acid and totally fantastic in taste but the gorgeous interior is quite unusual. The flesh just under the skin is a pearly red, gradually changing to the more usual creamy white toward the center. Menge tells me that Red on Red is a seedling of Grenadine which has deeply pigmented red flesh. Red on Red may not be available for too many weeks so go SOON if you want to try it. Please tell Menge that I sent you! For more information, visit www.epicenteravocados.com.