What better way to kick off the New Year then with our new gardening class schedule!

Saturday, January 15 — Winter Pruning with Christian Cobbs, Magic Gardens’ landscape designer and resident horticulturist

Now is the time of year to get your garden into shape!  Join Christian for this informative class and demonstration on winter pruning.

Saturday, January 22 – Architectural and Structural Plants in the Garden with Aerin Moore, Magic Gardens’ owner and head designer

Does your garden seem to lack form in the winter? Evergreen plants can be called part of the “bones” of the garden, giving rhythm and form to the design. This class will cover a variety of evergreens useful for their sculptural form as well as for screening.

Saturday, February 5 – Winter-blooming Perennials and Shrubs with Aerin Moore, Magic Gardens’ owner and head designer

Is your garden drab during the winter? This class will help you enliven your garden with flower color during the winter months. The plants that will be discussed are all reliable winter bloomers. Aerin has been designing landscapes for 30 years and specializes in having color in the garden throughout the year.

Saturday, February 12 (New Date!) — The Vegetable Bed with Stefani Bittner of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening

Now is the time to get your vegetable beds ready for spring planting!  Join Stefani Bittner of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening for this comprehensive class on vegetable bed design, construction, irrigation, soil maintenance, in ground planting vs raised beds, materials, recycling or re purposing materials for use in vegetable growing, safety standards, and soil testing.

Saturday, February 19 (New Date!) – Designing with Succulents with Christian Cobbs, Magic Gardens’ landscape designer and resident horticulturist

Succulents are easy to maintain, have a vast array of foliage colors, and are often drought-tolerant and well suited to the Bay Area’s temperate climate.  Join Christian for this informative class on some of our favorite plants!

Saturday, March 5 — The Spring Vegetable Garden with Stefani Bittner of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening

Learn what to do to get your spring crops started with Stefani Bittner of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening.  Topics include: soil/compost, fertilization, growing by seeds vs. transplants, pest maintenance, and what to plant now.

Winter might seem to be a challenging time to enjoy the beauty of our gardens.  We bay area  natives forget that seasonal change offers us eye catching foliage color and intriguing branch structures; focusing instead on evergreen plants to the exclusion of deciduous shrubs and trees like Red Twigged Dogwood and Coral Bark Maples.  Even smaller deciduous shrubs like Crimson Pygmy Berberis offer fascinating seasonal variation.  But for the hopelessly evergreen enamored garden enthusiast there is always the impressive Holly with its stop-light-red berries to satisfy the craving for leaves and seasonal effect at the same time!  Now is a great time to plant Holly as the rain will make establishing these winter performers all that much easier.  They love acid soil, so don’t forget to pick up a bag of Fermulch or Planting Mix.  Holly makes a fantastic hedge plant and responds well to pruning.  The prickly leaves are very useful for discouraging neighbor’s dogs and cats from using your garden plots for ‘business’.

At Magic Gardens we are currently stocking two Hollies for you to enjoy;  Ilex cornuta ‘Needleleaf’ and Ilex heckenfee.  Ilex cornuta is from China and is named for the upward tilting ‘horns’ which grow from the ends of each leaf.  Ilex heckenfee is from Germany and has darker green leaves with a more round shape.  Both will grace your garden with holiday spirit.

Now is a great time to mulch your garden with Fermulch.

Fermulch is composed mostly of fir bark (which has been composted to the consistency of soil), worm castings , kelp meal and chicken manure.  Chicken manure adds biologically available nitrogen to depleted soil and feeds plants and symbiotic soil cultures over the growing season ahead.  Kelp meal also replenishes nitrogen but more importantly offers a natural plant growth hormone to encourage overall plant growth.  Worm castings and composted fir bark change soil structure over time to make it more hospitable to ornamental and edible garden plants.  Castings and composted fir bark add badly needed micro-pores to our native clay soil which plant root systems require for gas exchange, water drainage and water storage.  Fermulch increases the acidity of soil and is especially recommended for Rhododendrons,  Azaleas, Camelias, Hydrangeas, and any other acid loving plant.

Mulching with Fermulch now will improve your garden dramatically over the next growing season.

A 2 cubic foot bag of Fermulch will cover a 5 foot by 5 foot bed 1 inch deep.

Click here to calculate how much you will need for your space!

Join us Saturday December 4th at 10 a.m. for mulled apple cider and a discussion about ‘Winter Care of the Garden’.

Topics will include; preventing frost damage, wind proofing trees, garden journals, pest and disease prevention and pruning.   Attendees will receive 10% off purchases that day and a raffle for a gift basket will be held at the end of class.

Bring your mittens, it’s getting cold out there!

Planting your edible garden was just the beginning!

Join Stefani Bittner of Magic Gardens Edible Landscaping for a discussion on what to do with your summer crops this Saturday, September 18 at 10 A.M. The class will be a  discussion — not a demonstration — of favorite preserving techniques and tips.  Bring your notepad and a friend for what is sure to be a fun and informative class!

Join us  for the debut of Modern Cabana’s fabulous Urban Chicken Coop!  There will be free classes, chickens and live music in the nursery.  See the class page for a schedule of  events.  Here is a sneak peek of the coop!

Spencer green-roofing the coop!

Our friends at Baia Nicchia will be hosting an Outstanding in the Field Dinner this Thursday, July 1.  The dinner will be prepared by chef Guillaume Bienaime of Marche. Guillaume will feature Baia Nicchia’s  cherry tomatoes, including Blush. He will also be featuring the excellent fare of the King of Mushrooms (Todd Spanier), Barinaga Ranch (Marcia Barinaga) and Kashiwase Farms (Steven and Lisa Kashiwase). There will be wine pairings with each course, and a farm tour before dinner.

Tickets may still be available – visit www.outstandinginthefield.com for more information.

This week is the 4th Annual National Pollinators Week.  A whole week dedicated to the bees, butterflies, birds, insects, and other creatures that work with nature to pollinate flowers. About 75% of all flowering plants rely on insect or animal pollinators and over 200,000 different species act as pollinators.  Magic Gardens is working with a local bee keeper and the Yellow Dot Project to help support pollinators. Look for bee friendly plants marked with bumble bee stickers in the nursery and  later this summer, we will host a class on  our local bees (check back soon for date).

Colony Collapse Disorder continues to plague honey bees, stump researchers, and be a major concern to agricultural communities. And honey bees are not the only pollinators in peril; bumble bee species in the East and the West also are vanishing from their customary habitats. Loss of pollinator habitat was a major cause identified by the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council’s study of pollinators. By planting for pollinators, we can rebuild pollinator habitat and make a significant, positive impact on the survival rates for honey bees and other pollinators. Whether urban or rural, pollinators obtain the vital nectar, pollen, and nesting resources they need to thrive from key plant species.

What can the general public do for pollinators?

Here are three simple things you can do to support the bees in your neighborhood:

1. Plant a garden.
2. Group bee friendly plants together.
3. Don’t use pesticides. If you must, avoid broad spectrum pesticides and spray them at dusk, when bees are least active.

To learn more visit these websites:

www.pollinator.org

http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens

A Certified Biodynamic liquid foliar (just add water!) chock full of microbial activity for all your flowers, veggies, shrubs, trees and grasses. Derived from the best recipe known to man to restore your plant’s vitality, this tea will make your plants go insane! They will LOVE it, and even better, love YOU for it! Contains all the preparations, plus some extra love! Demeter Certified. 4 single-use teabags; each teabag makes approximately 1-2 gallons of tea.

Locally crafted and hand-packed. Entire packaging fully compostable. Outer bag 40% recycled PCW; liner & stickers from EarthFirst® PLA, a compostable plant-based material.