Welcome!

Learn about Worm Composting

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:17:23 -0700

We will be hosting an informal informational session with our friends from
 Urban Worm
on Saturday September 8th
from 11:00-3:00
 Stop by and visit with one of their experts to learn about the in’s and out’s of home worm composting and all it’s benefits.

Here is a bit of information about Urban Worm:

Urban Worm is a Berkeley-based worm farm that provides worms and vermicompost to gardeners, nurseries, farmers, and home worm composters around the bay area and throughout the United States. We are a project of Urban Adamah, a non-profit farm and environmental education center.

Urban Worm is committed to providing you with the highest quality and healthiest organically raised red wigglers (eisenia fetida) and nutrient rich vermicompost. Our red wigglers, the most well known and commonly used composting worms, are grown on-site at our one-acre organic urban farm. They can tolerate a range of temperatures and conditions, live happily in easily maintained worm bins, and will multiply quickly when cared for properly. Home worm composting is a fun and easy way to transform your food waste into a high-nitrogen garden amendment (Vermicompost).
Incorporate vermicompost into your garden to improve soil structure and moisture-holding capacity, add essential nutrients from a natural source, and improve the cation exchange capacity for greater nutrient uptake. Healthy soil is the key to healthy plants that resist pests and disease.
We are very excited to be bagging our living vermicompost which will be offered along side of our worms at East Bay Nursery very soon. This is a mixture of nutrient-rich worm castings, organic material, worms and the other organisms that make up the rich biodiversity of healthy soil.
Urban Worm exists to bring the benefits of worm castings to the world. We like to think that we are saving the world, one worm at a time. If you can’t make it to East Bay on September 8th, please come visit us at our farm at 1050 Parker St in Berkeley, just down the street from East Bay Nursery. For more information and workshop dates, visit us at our website www.urbanwormcomposting.org
We hope you will be able to stop by and see us on the 8th.

Bay Friendly Lecture This Saturday

Wed, 9 May 2012 09:16:44 -0700

Choosing and Using Fool Proof Plants
East Bay Nursery, Saturday, May 12 – 10-11:30 am

Discover the best-suited drought tolerant plants – Mediterranean and California native for your garden. Horticulturist and gardening coach, Susan Handjian will lead a free talk on Choosing and Using Foolproof Plants this Saturday at East Bay Nursery. Susan will provide tips and troubleshooting on plant selection, proper placement in the garden, and requirements for water, soil, sun and maintenance. This talk is a great opportunity for anyone planning changes to their garden, whether it’s swapping out a problem plant or two, or replacing their entire lawn with a new sustainable Bay-Friendly garden.

Everyone who attends the talk will receive a copy of the Bay-Friendly Gardening Guide, an 80-page reference guide and 20% discount nursery coupons. There will be a drawing for additional garden gifts at the end of the talk.

The talk is free and no pre-registration is required. For more information, visit www.BayFriendly.org

Rhododendrons

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:25:49 -0800

Since you have read all our suburb advice from previous blogs, and have planted your winter vegetable beds and buried your spring bulbs, you’re feeling finished, right? Now you can sit back and enjoy the wide range of leafy vegetables growing in your beds and wait for the first signs of all those sprouting bulbs you planted. Not so fast!

Our holiday shop may be filled with ornaments and decorative items for your holiday festivities, the front of the nursery may be filled with lots of cut and live christmas trees, but take a moment to enjoy our new shipment of rhododendrons.

Rhododendrons are often called the "King of Shrubs" because of their show of flowers and the wide range of colors. Our rhododendrons have been chosen based on years of experience selecting varieties that are best adapted to growing in our climate. (USDA zone 9a, 10b, Sunset zones 14-17). In addition to a variety of colors and plant sizes, rhododendrons have a range of blooming times with some blooming in early spring, some mid spring and some in late spring/early summer. You will find a wide range of colors from white to pink, yellow, red, blue, and purple. We have over 40 varieties of rhododendrons. Here are six of our favorites:

 Fragrantissimum: a fragrant early to mid season bloomer with broadly funnel shaped, wavy edged flowers about 2-1/2" across and a white flushed rose outside with bright yellow throat growing to three feet in 10 years.

Fosterianum: a heavily fragrant, white funnel shaped flower about four inches across with a yellow flare held in trusses of three to four flowers. The plant grows to five feet in 10 years.

Noyo Chief: an early to mid season bloomer with a broadly bell shaped flower 2-1/2" across of a clear rose-red, held in ball shaped truss of 16 flowers. Plant grows to six feet in 10 years.

Taurus: an early mid season bloomer with a bell shaped, strong red flower and a dark throat and black spots, also held in ball shaped trusses of 16 flowers with deep red winter buds.

President Roosevelt: an early mid season bloomer with flowers that are strong red at the edges and a white center held in trusses of 17 to 24 flowers. In addition this rhododendron has variegated leaves with green edges and yellow centers. The plant grows to five feet in 10 years.

Plant Care:
Like other ericaceous plants, most rhododendrons prefer acid soils with a pH of roughly 4.5-5.5; Rhododendrons also have fibrous roots and prefer well-drained soils high in organic material. In areas with poorly-drained or alkaline soils, rhododendrons are often grown in raised beds using mediums such as peat or our Acid Planting Mix. Mulching and careful watering are important, especially before the plant is established.

Rhododendrons perform better when protected from drying winds. Partial shade is desirable, but deep shade may result in few or no flower blooms. Morning or late afternoon sun is the best location for planting your rhododendrons.

There are several important diseases of azaleas and rhododendrons. They can usually be avoided if the following practices are observed:

* Purchase healthy plants.
* Provide excellent drainage by planting above grade in well   drained soil.
* Mulch to conserve water.
* Protect flower buds from hungry deer, though the plant is typically   deer resistant.
* Provide moisture when needed as well as nutrients from an acid   fertilizer.
* Prune out dead and dying stems and remove from the vicinity of   the plant.
* Where experience indicates the need, apply fungicides to prevent   Ovulinia petal blight, fungus leaf spots, root rot and branch wilt.

Rhododendron Facts:
Rhododendron ponticum is the state flower of Indian administerd Kashmir as well as Pakistan administered Kashmir. Rhododendron arboreum (Lali Guransh) is the national flower of Nepal. Rhododendron niveum is the state tree of Sikkim in India. Rhododendron is also the state tree of the state of Uttarakhand, India.

Rhododendron catawbiense, the most widespread rhododendron of the Appalachian Mountains, is the state flower of West Virginia, and is in the Flag of West Virginia. Rhododendron macrophyllum, a widespread rhododendron of the Pacific Northwest, is the state flower of Washington.