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SANTA CRUZ (November 2009) - The Pipevine Swallowtail, a cobalt-streaked butterfly with orange-and-white speckled underwings, once thrived in Santa Cruz County. But the local population of these beautiful creatures blinked out 100 years ago, not to be seen again for nearly five generations.

Now, they’re back – at least a few of them are – and living in a lush, two-acre garden adjacent to the Pasatiempo golf course. And if a group of local gardeners is successful, this little band of insect pioneers may soon venture out of its sanctuary to become a free-living, Santa Cruz native species once again.

Acres of plastic film cover strawberry fields near La Selva Beach.
Maria Gaura ©santacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (October 2009) - Fall is a lovely season everywhere on the Central Coast except, perhaps, in the vegetable garden.

Look up, and behold the brilliance of the turning leaves in the slanting autumn light. Look down, and see the blackened remains of your cucumber vines, and a slumping hedgerow of dying tomatoes.

It’s tempting to walk away from this depressing scene, and not return until April. But don’t give in to seasonal slothfulness! A quick garden clean-up before the rains hit will keep the bugs and plant diseases at bay for a healthy spring garden.

And with a bit more effort, you can plant a winter garden with snap peas, lettuce and other cool-loving veggies that thrive in our mild, wet winters.

Recycled-steel insects by artist Doctor Wasabi, at Sierra Azul Nursery ©samtacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (August, 2009) - Cool summer weather throughout coastal California has put a damper on this year's tomato season, disappointing home gardeners from Marin to Monterey with scrawny plants, flower drop and late-ripening fruit.

But a bad year for tomatoes can be a great year for salad greens. While the tomatoes in my garden are a fraction of their normal size, (and the heirloom varieties got yanked out weeks ago, ending their misery), the salad beds have been producing bushels of tender greens since early spring.

It’s too late in the season to start over with new tomato plants. But there’s plenty of time to grow your own salad mix from seeds and starts. Plant now, and begin eating home-grown salads by Labor Day.

Pinching the top bud from a branching sunflower can result in numerous long-stemmed blossoms sprouting from the stem. ©santacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (June 2009) - There’s probably not a gardener in California who hasn’t tenderly planted a rose, or heirloom tomato, only to watch it be dragged underground by a hungry gopher.

All too often, irate gardeners have retaliated with poisoned baits and gases, tainting their soil with strychnine, arsenic, zinc phosphide, and other nasty poisons. In addition to finding their intended targets, poison baits for gophers and moles have been known to kill songbirds, owls, fish, amphibians,and even family pets. Obviously, a large enough dose of these toxins could also be fatal to a human.

But there are alternatives to turning your backyard into a Superfund site. A combination of trapping and gopher-proof garden design can keep your yard mostly gopher-free without resorting to chemical warfare. Also, if done correctly, trapping can be a quick and humane alternative to an agonizing death by poison.

Protea are in full bloom at the UCSC Arboretum. ©santacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (April 2009 ) - The Victory Garden is back. Given the sad state of the economy this year, interest in home-grown food is soaring. The National Gardening Association estimates that 7 million U.S. households plan to plant new vegetable gardens this year, boosting the number of backyard plots to 43 million. First Lady Michelle Obama has even installed a kitchen garden at the White House, imparting a patriotic feel to the sometimes grubby business of growing your family's food. 

If you, too, are taking the gardening plunge this year, start your growing season by building a sturdy raised bed. Here are directions for a gopher-proof redwood planter that you can build in one afternoon, and is portable enough to take with you if you move.

Mobile coops keep chickens safe at night at TLC Ranch in Las Lomas. TLC stands for "Tastes Like Chicken," but these are laying hens. ©santacruzwire.com

LAS LOMAS (May 2009) -- On a sunny spring afternoon, TLC Ranch in Las Lomas looks like a storybook farm. Glossy red hens chase after bugs, and spotted pigs root contentedly in a grassy pasture. A huge white dog named Angel follows, watchfully, as four-year-old Fiona strides the fields in a stylish pair of pink wellies.

TLC Ranch is exactly the kind of small farm that local-food advocates crave as an alternative to industrial meat production. Animal welfare is paramount here, production is organic, and the food is sold locally. There is an eager market for TLC’s pasture-raised pork and eggs, despite the premium price.

But the cost of farming in the Pajaro Valley is high, and livestock producers are few and far between. If TLC is going to expand, its next move may be to a less-expensive community elsewhere in California.

Balmy January weather has tricked some fruit trees into an early bloom.
© santacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (January 2009) - It may be stinky and attract flies, but nothing makes a garden grow like a steaming pile of horse manure. Horse droppings make an excellent garden fertilizer and, better yet, can be collected for free at many stables. But is horse manure as natural as it smells?

Horses are prone to a host of parasites, and most horse owners regularly dose their animals with vermicides – medications toxic to intestinal worms and other insect pests. These medications pass through the digestive system, prompting some gardeners to ask whether tainted manure may be harming their crops, their families, or the environment.

Sheet-metal steed grazes at Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville copyright santacruzwire

SANTA CRUZ (December 2008) - Wintry weather has finally arrived in Santa Cruz, and most backyard gardeners have abandoned their vegetable beds to the cold-hardy weeds and the neighborhood cats.

But before you curl up on the sofa with a mug of tea and a stack of seed catalogs, there is one last chore to do. Build a low-maintenance compost heap out of free or low-cost organic materials, and let nature turn it into a worm-filled soil amendment that will be ready in time for spring planting.

This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

SANTA CRUZ, Ca. - (July 2008) - I’ve been composting my kitchen waste for 20 years, and there’s not much in the way of rotting food that can gross me out anymore. But then, last summer, the maggots appeared.

This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

SANTA CRUZ, Ca. - (July 2008) - There are pros and cons to any composting method, whether it employs soil bacteria, worms or black soldier fly maggots to do the job.

This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

AROMAS, Ca. - (April 2003) - Spring is here, and sprouting seeds are not the only living things stirring the warm, moist soil of California gardens. The gophers are stirring down there, too. 

Wary free-range cattle are poised to flee from visitors at Eel River Organic Beef in Humboldt County.
© santacruzwire.com

By Jennifer Pittman
This article first appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

SOQUEL -(April 14, 2008) - Just before dawn one morning in mid-October, Laura Everett received a call from the Soquel post office: "Your chicks are here."

Nearly 300 day-old peeping chicks had arrived in three cardboard boxes from a Fresno hatchery. There was a din of peeping. The young stars of the Everett Family Farm's Egg Sharing program -- Rhode Island Reds, Black Sex-Links and black-and-white speckled Barred Rocks -- have grown up now and live in a 14,000-square-foot open Soquel pasture with a mobile chicken coop.

By Maria Gaura
This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

SALINAS, Ca. - Warm September nights are a mixed blessing for Tom Borchard. Balmy evening temperatures allow his monster pumpkins to gain as much as 30 pounds in a day, billowing almost visibly to as much as 700 pounds.

Trees provide a wind break in a field of begonias near Watsonville
copyright santacruzwire.com

By Maria Gaura
This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

SANTA CRUZ, Ca. - When nursery manager Sandie Lewis saw what was hatching from the clusters of eggs that had appeared beneath the giant bamboo, she recoiled a step. The eggs were cream colored and on the small side, and they nestled in the leafy duff. But what emerged, instead of pinfeathered chicks, were clusters of bright red tentacles, with a delicate sheen of brownish slime.

By Maria Gaura
This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

MARSHALL, Ca. - (May 2004) - After 25 years of persistent work, Marin County rancher Albert Straus has figured out a way to run his dairy farm, organic creamery and electric car from the manure generated by his herd of 270 cows.

By Maria Gaura
This story originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

SANTA CRUZ, Ca. - (Feb. 2003) - When Jeff Larkey began farming near Santa Cruz two decades ago, he found he didn't have to compete hard for the San Francisco shoppers eager to pony up premium prices for his chemical-free veggies. "You could sell pretty much anything organic 15 or 20 years ago," Larkey said. "And it didn't matter that much if it wasn't really great-looking."