Helping People Help Themselves
Master Gardeners are community members who have been trained under the direction of the University of California Cooperative Extension. Each volunteer has completed more than 50 hours of formal classroom training. Master Gardeners, agents of the University of California, assist the UC Cooperative Extension by providing practical, scientific gardening information to the home gardeners in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
The Lake Tahoe Master Gardeners extend research-based information by:
- offering workshops and classes
- answering questions via email hotlines, farmers markets and at community events
- publishing articles in newsletters, local newspapers and social media.
Newsletter & Event Updates
Would you like updates and information about Public Education Classes and Events from the UC Master Gardeners of Lake Tahoe? Add your name to our newsletter and events update list to get the latest information.
Bug Blog
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Lagoon Fly: Seeing Spots
Ever seen a lagoon fly? It's a syrphid fly, Eristalinus aeneus, distinguished by small black spots patterning its eyes. Syrphids, also known hoverflies or flower flies, hover over a flower before foraging....
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Ootheca! Ootheca! Ootheca!
If you've been pruning bushes or trees, check to see if a praying mantis egg case (ootheca) is attached to a limb. If you do, you're in luck! A mantis deposits her egg case in late summer or fall, and usually on twigs, stems, a wooden stake...
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Presenting: A Butterfly and a Fly
A gray butterfly and a fruit fly... Each has "fly" in its name but one is a member of the order Lepidoptera and the other, order Diptera. Etymology does not agree with entomology. Ever managed to photograph a butterfly and fruit...
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Today's Honorary Bee Image Award Goes to...a Fly
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award goes to...drum roll...an image of a humble hoverfly appearing on the National Geographic Facebook page. The caption reads "A bee sits on a marigold flower in Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA." Bee? Umm,...
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Mary Louise Flint's Article in The Acorn: 'Butterflies in Decline'
You won't want to miss the cover story, "Butterflies in Decline," in the spring 2024 issue of The Acorn, the quarterly magazine published by the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. The center, operated by the American River Natural History...