Blog & News Articles

Blog & News Articles

Image of Haven Kiers' lawn-free front yard.

Life After Lawn Plant List

Fill your lawn-free front yard with selections that not only have less-than-lawn water needs, they also perform well in our region, look great, and benefit our ever important pollinators!
Ellen Zagory

Life after lawn: Replace your lawn and feed the world?

  • by Katie Ferguson Hetrick
Now, as landscapes are being revamped due to the drought, and lawns are removed or let go, the UC Davis campus, the city and its residents are in a position to serve as an example of how urban areas — particularly urban areas in the heart of agricultural country — can support global crop production through small changes in landscape choices.
Davis Ace March specials

March specials for members at Davis Ace

Thank you Davis Ace for providing these discounts to members of the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. In addition to these offers, our members always receive 10% off Davis Ace’s supply of Arboretum All-Stars.
Learning by Leading interns working to maintain the Good Life Garden.

UPDATE: Good Life Garden

Students are growing edible plants in the Good Life Garden, which will be donated to the UC Davis Food Pantry for students in need.
Taylor Lewis

Learning irrigation from the top down

Taylor Lewis, nursery manager, had a vision for how to create a unique tree irrigation system that would suit the conditions at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery, then worked with his student staff and interns to create it.
Image of hummingbird in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden

Hummingbirds in your Garden

Despite being the tiniest birds in the world, hummingbirds pack a lot of attitude. Feisty and noisy, these sparkling garden denizens are beautiful and entertaining. Our local year-round resident is the Anna’s hummingbird, a medium-sized hummingbird with an iridescent rosy-pink color on the neck and head (in males) that flashes brightly when exposed to sunlight at the right angle.
Volunteer training

New volunteers begin training classes

This year we recruited new volunteers for our regular gardening and land stewardship volunteer teams. They are currently in the process of gaining in-depth training on the care and maintenance of Arboretum and Public Garden landscapes.
Taylor Lewis and Christina Elms

Leading by Learning: Inspiring students one plant at a time

UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery Manager Taylor Lewis leads a motivated group of nursery propagation interns who are excited to apply the concepts they learn in class to the soil around them. Each student is responsible for an area in the nursery; they are given the opportunity to experiment with different care and maintenance techniques, and then, evaluate what works and what doesn’t. According to his students, the internship provides them with valuable experience that they don’t get in a classroom.