Beat the Heat!

from Fall 2022

Vittorio di PortWinery& Bar

by Summer Brausel

Hotter summers and less rain make us rethink the plants we want in our gardens.

Heat tolerant, water-wise plants are just as charming and beautiful as our water-loving plants. Consider native California plants. Due to our Mediterranean climate, most native plants fit the heat resistant, drought tolerant requirement. So which should you choose for your yard?

There are a few flowering plants to consider that are sun lovers, like the California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum). It has bright red flowers that bloom all summer, and attract hummingbirds and other pollinators. Sulphur Flower (Eriogonum umbellatum) displays long lasting bright yellow flowers that bring a colorful pop to the garden. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is also a heat lover, coming in all shades of red, pink, yellow, and white. Salvias, both broad leaf and small leaf, love the heat, bloom all summer, and come in all colors of red, white, blue, and pink. So many beautiful flowering plants to choose from.

purple, pink and white flowers for fragrance and cooking. Plant a Mediterranean bay tree (Laurus nobilis), for its aromatic leaves and stately appearance. A pomegranate tree (Punica granatum) offers unusual edible fruit and colorful flowers. Heat loving vegetables like okra, with its big showy blossoms, and ornamental peppers that explode in a riot of color are also edible, and eggplant for its showy dark purple orbs are perfect companions in a Mediterranean garden.

River Clean Ups • Hikes

CA Naturalist Certiﬁcation • Field Trips

Wakamatsu Open Farm Days

Ikebana • Poetry • Trail Building

Water Quality Monitoring

Fishing • Birdwatching • Public Programs

Nature Camp • Wakamatsu Work Days

Bluebird Monitoring • Orienteering

Land Stewardship • Homeschool Fridays

Private Historic Tours • And More!

For information, visit ARConservancy.org/events/ 530-621-1224

Add some height to your garden with sword-leafed Red-Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria), and make some room for the impressive Black Elder (Sambucus nigra) for its reddish stems, dark leaves, and long-lasting clusters of pink blooms.

You can even intersperse some edibles throughout your garden. Perhaps a trio of rosemary bushes (Salvia rosmarinus) with

Don’t forget ornamental grasses such as Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) that look like clouds of pink or white, or the very wellbehaved grasses such as Blue fescue Festuca glauca. Grasses also bring some nice texture to a garden.

A great resource for native plants is Calscape.org, developed by the California Native Plant Society. Explore their website for planting guides, plant selection and garden planning.

Another great resource is the UC Davis Arboretum website: arboretum.ucdavis.edu . Explore this website and find a Sustainable Garden Toolkit and plant lists, continued on page 20

Beat the Heat!

continued from page 19 including one of our favorites that specializes in drought tolerant plants - the Arboretum All-Star plant list.

A local resource is our Sherwood Demonstration Garden. The Garden features 16 themed gardens, several specifically designed for our climate. On our website, each garden has its own webpage with a plant list that can be downloaded and printed. The All-Star Garden, the Mediterranean Garden, and the Native Garden all specialize in plants that do well in our Mediterranean climate. Bring these plant lists with you when you visit Sherwood. Wander the gardens, and take notes of the plants that you like. The Sherwood Demonstration Garden is open every Friday and Saturday from 9 to 12 noon. Also, on the first Saturday of each month there is a free garden tour. The tour starts at 9a sharp, so do not be late! The docent may be able to answer your questions as you go. The Sherwood Demonstration Garden is located at 6699 Campus Dr, Placerville, behind the Folsom Lake College/El Dorado Center.

For more information about the demonstration gardens and monthly classes, hours, to sign up for newsletters, to print plant lists,or even to ask a gardening question, visit the UCCE Master Gardeners of El Dorado County website found at mgeldorado.ucanr.edu.

Summer Brausel is a UCCE El Dorado Master Gardener.

Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference

Annual Toiletries Drive Focuses on Caldor Fire Relief

by Nivi Sudhir Kumar

The 12th Annual Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference Toiletries Drive benefited those who lost their homes in the Caldor Fire, as well as those in our community struggling to make ends meet. Seven local elementary schools collected over 6,900 items during the two-week drive held mid-February 2022.

The Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference Community Engagement Interns from Folsom, El Dorado Hills and Placerville contacted elementary schools in their geographic areas of focus to encourage them to host toiletries drives. Each school advertised their drive through posters and flyers that included information about the items to collect such as dental supplies, body wash, sunscreen, kleenex and lotion. In addition, Datwyler Orthodontics in El Dorado Hills hosted a collection. All the donated toiletries were picked up from the participating schools and sorted and counted by the youth volunteers at after-school events.

The toiletries will be donated to various agencies throughout El Dorado and Sacramento counties including Loaves & Fishes and Green Valley Community Church, as well as distributed to people directly affected by the Caldor Fire. The toiletries were well received by families benefiting from the Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference Emergency Food Pantry in Placerville.

The Traveling Trophy is given to the school that collects the most toiletries continued on page 21

We offer high-quality early education programs for families with children birth to 5 years old. The Center Base Preschool programs are located throughout El Dorado County.

PROGRAMAS de PREESCOLAR GRATIS

Ofrecemos de educación temprana de alta calidad para familias con niños recién nacidos a 5 años de edad. Progrmas Preescolares de Base Central están ubicados dentro de todo el Condado de El Dorado.