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UC Master Gardeners of Inyo and Mono Counties

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Squash bug eggs on the underside of a leaf
Article

Squash Bug Season Approaches

May 6, 2025
By Dustin W Blakey
 It’s May, and that means gardeners in our area are planting melons, squashes, and cucumbers. These warm-season vegetables grow great in our climate. I’m convinced a single zucchini plant could feed a whole family, that is if it doesn’t get obliterated by squash bugs first. (Anasa tristis) …
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Person working soil with rake in foreground
Article

Difference Between Soil and Dirt

April 17, 2025
By Carmen Kappos Inyo-Mono Master Gardener Volunteer While the words soil and dirt are often used interchangeably there are differences between them. Recently, Dustin Blakey, our local UCCE Farm Advisor, gave a talk called “Preparing Garden Soil on the East Side.” During this discussion Dustin…
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A hand holding a couple dozen pelleted seeds
Article

Sowing Pelleted Seeds

April 8, 2025
by Alison Collin Inyo-Mono Master Gardener Volunteer One of the most tedious gardening jobs at this time of year must surely be thinning seedling crops such as carrots and beetroot. If you have ever done this you must have experienced the dilemma of having a cluster of beautiful young plants that…
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Summer Weeds of the Owens Valley: Know Thine Enemy

April 1, 2025
By Kerry Lozito Inyo-Mono Master Gardener Volunteer We've all been there. You meticulously plant your garden in spring, get side-tracked for a couple-three weeks, and come back to a carpet of weeds when the weather warms. Does this mean you can never take a spring vacation? Of course…
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Article

A New Look!

March 31, 2025
By Dustin W Blakey
The Inyo-Mono Master Gardeners have a new look to their website and blog! Recently UC ANR updated its web platform to something a little more modern. The old system was cobbled together with parts that could no longer be maintained, so here we are with a new site.Our URLs have changed, but don't worry!…
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Dormant Spraying Made Easy

January 27, 2025
As the weather warms a little, but before buds break and begin to show any color is a good time to dormant spray fruit trees. Why spray? Many pests overwinter either as adults or eggs in crevasses in bark, under scales of buds, in mulch or fallen leaves under the trees.
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Local Fruit Information

January 23, 2025
By Dustin W Blakey
Although it's cold out and our fruit trees, bushes, and canes are still dormant, you can still dream about warmer conditions to come! Dreaming then often evolves into the desire to plant fruits in the landscape.
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A chart of numbers generated from the CIMIS website showing ET data
Article

It's Been So Dry: Do I Need To Water?

January 14, 2025
By Dustin W Blakey
Owens Valley has had a dry winter so far. December brought no rain, and by mid-January, we've seen about 5 inches of evapotranspiration (ETo) since November but less than an inch of rain.
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A wooden shipping pallet. (Photo: A. Collin)
Article

Picking Pallets for Raised Beds

August 19, 2024
Raised bed gardening has become increasingly popular among gardeners who seek more control over their growing environments. It can offer an alternative way to garden especially in some of our areas where native soil just isn't great to grow things.
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The reverse side of a cucumber leave covered in aphids and their excretions.
Article

2024: A Year of Disease and Pestilence

August 12, 2024
This year I was determined to create the model garden that I have long dreamed about, but those dreams of neat, weed-free rows of vegetables, trees hanging with fruit, and armfuls of flowers are far from being fulfilled.
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A patch of former lawn, mostly dead, with a few green weeds and Bermudagrass
Article

Lawn-pocalypse! Surviving Drought

July 11, 2024
Ah, summer! The season of sunburns, pool parties, and lawn droughts. If your once lush, green carpet now looks like a crunchy brown doormat, you're not alone.
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A hand turning the adjuster on an operating flood bubbler
Article

Let's Talk About Flood Bubblers

July 1, 2024
By Dustin W Blakey
I know you've seen them. Little caps on the end of vertical irrigation pipe that can be adjusted to control flow with a twist (or screwdriver). They are called flood bubblers and are used widely in the Eastern Sierra to deliver water to woody plants outside of a lawn sprinkler system.
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A small, white grub being held in a gloved hand.
Article

Understanding Chafer Beetles From Root to Ruin

May 22, 2024
I was dealing with a gopher problem in a lawn awhile back and I came across another turfgrass pest that you may or may not be familiar with; a chafer beetle. These white grubs are the immature larval form of a chafer beetle. Here in California we deal mainly with the masked chafer (Cyclocephala spp.
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2 parallel drip irrigation lines running top to bottom on both sides of a vegetable seedling
Article

Flow Focus: Irrigation Friction Loss

May 20, 2024
I recently helped one of our local student gardens install a drip irrigation system in some raised beds. During the installation, I had to explain why we were using tubing for most of our system instead of .
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Garden Rotation Rules of Thumb

May 18, 2024
By Dustin W Blakey
Vegetable gardening is both an art and a science, and an important technique for success is crop rotation. By rotating crops, you can improve soil health, reduce pests, and increase yields. Continuous planting of the same kind of plant in the same place every year is a recipe for creating problems.
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A fun, Easter decorated landscape with a lawn in front of a house.
Article

A History of the American Lawn

May 14, 2024
Most of us grew up with a lawn. For many of us, mowing the lawn was a part of our weekly chores growing up; yellow spots were treated like a black mark, and a dandelion popping up was like a declaration of war.
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A dial gauge showing water usage of 2,422,880 gallons.
Article

Flow Focus: A Guide to Understanding Water Meters

May 3, 2024
Water is essential for nurturing vibrant gardens and landscapes. By leveraging water meters, we can effectively monitor water usage, detect leaks, and optimize irrigation practices, ensuring every drop contributes to the sustainability and vitality of our gardens.
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Amsonia Blue Ice in Bishop.
Article

Amsonia: A Favorite with Pollinators

April 29, 2024
Amsonia, a plant native to the Northeastern USA, seems to be little known in the West. They are commonly known as bluestars on account of the shape and color of their flowers.
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People standing around a raised garden bed watching a volunteer erect a winter cover over it.

Gardening on the east side is challenging, but the UC Master Gardeners of Inyo and Mono counties are here to help make your garden successful.

This site contains local information of interest to gardeners in our region. There are hundreds of books and other websites that can provide general horticultural knowledge. This information fills in the OK, but what about this weird place? knowledge you need to garden here.

Our online gardening content is located in the Eastern Sierra Gardening section. 

If you're interested in learning more about gardening in our area, consider attending one of our workshops or becoming a Master Gardener volunteer yourself!

The local Master Garden program is comprised of volunteers who receive training from the University of California and then share and extend that knowledge in our communities. We plan to announce our next training in Fall 2025. It will be a hybrid online/in-person training that will begin in late winter of 2026. See this page for more information about our program.

Our Helpline

If you live in the Eastern Sierra, we have numerous ways to get help from our volunteers.

Click here to get help. 

 

This page has information on taking clear diagnostic photos to send to a helpline.

Interested in preserving your garden's bounty? Please visit our local UC Master Food Preserver program's site.

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Mission Statement

To extend research-based knowledge and information on home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices to the residents of Inyo and Mono counties.
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