Vegetable Demonstration Garden

Established in 2000, the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (FOHC) vegetable demonstration garden is the site of research and demonstrations and where Master Gardeners grow a variety of cool and warm-season crops to help identify varieties that grow successfully in the Sacramento area. The vegetable garden is a living classroom.

Formal vegetable trials have been conducted on fresh market (hybrid) tomatoes, sweet corn, snap beans, summer squash and heirloom tomatoes. Multiple demonstrations and tastings have featured cherry tomatoes and melons.

The Vegetables link on the left lists all of our publications, studies, and videos.

We hope to see you soon at one of our open days.

The vegetables in the demonstration garden are grown using water conserving and organic methods whenever possible. Those methods include the use of the following:

• Organic fertilizers (such as pelleted chicken manure, fish emulsion, seaweed/kelp)
• Organic soil amendments (such as compost)
• Cover crops that are grown to provide nutrients and “green manure” to the soil
• Crop rotation to help prevent the build up of soil-borne diseases and pests
• Soil solarization to kill many soil-borne diseases and some weeds
• Straw mulch to reduce weeds and keep the soil moist and cool
• Drip irrigation system to reduce water usage
• Environmentally sound pest management (such as blasting aphids and spider mites with water, hand-picking squash bugs, hand-picking weeds, covering plants with row covers to exclude pests, planting nectar-producing flowering plants that attract beneficial insects, and judicious use of insecticidal soaps and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) when necessary)

 

We’re on the Map!
The All-America Selections Map

The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (FOHC) vegetable garden has been formally recognized as an All-America Selections (AAS) Display Garden. While there are nearly 200 AAS Display Gardens in the U.S. and Canada, the FOHC vegetable garden is one of only seven in California.  The FOHC vegetable garden has previously planted AAS winners, but this is its first season as an official Display Garden.  

All AAS winners have already been evaluated by a panel of unbiased, professional horticulturists and deemed regional or national AAS winners.  From the AAS tagline “Tested Nationally & Proven Locally,” FOHC is fulfilling the “Proven Locally” role.

As an AAS Display Garden, the role of the FOHC vegetable garden is to:

• grow the winners in a beautiful and educational display that showcases the results of the AAS trials
• educate the public about AAS and their trialing process
• introduce the winning varieties to the public

An official AAS sign will designate at least one 20-foot raised bed which will be planted with AAS winners, with the possibility that other AAS winners will be planted throughout the garden.  The UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County are excited to be recognized as an AAS Display Garden and announce their partnership with All-America Selections.

FOHC activities such as Harvest Day, Open Gardens, field trips, garden tours, and visitors from the neighboring Fair Oaks Community Garden will afford opportunities for Master Gardeners to showcase and introduce examples of AAS winners as well as educate the public about the AAS program.  

The 2018-19 cool season AAS display garden included beets, kale, cabbage, mizuna, pak choi, radishes, and lettuce.  The summer AAS display garden showcased many peppers, tomatoes, and other edibles, herbs, and flowers. 

What is All-America Selections?

All-America Selections (AAS) is a non-profit organization that conducts confidential and impartial trials of new, never-before-sold flower and vegetable seed varieties throughout North America.

AAS was founded in 1932 by W. Ray Hastings, President of the Southern Seedsmen’s Association of Atlanta, Georgia.  The goal was to provide a way for home gardeners to learn which new varieties are truly improved.  It is supported by breeding companies and is the only national, non-profit plant trialing organization in North America.  Their mission statement is “To promote new garden varieties with superior garden performance judged in impartial trials in North America.”  The organization’s purpose is threefold:

1. test new, unsold cultivars
2. inform gardeners about the AAS Winners
3. earn gardeners’ trust in the AAS Winners

Each fall, AAS trials begin with competing breeding companies donating seed to be used as comparisons for each entry.  Then entries are trialed in more than 50 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Comparison varieties are grown side-by-side with the entries for a one-to-one comparison of garden performance, earliness, flower or fruit size, or any other characteristic important to the home gardener.

The 65+ trial judges are horticulture professionals at universities, public gardens, extension offices, seed companies, breeding companies, retailers, and commercial growers.  Judges volunteer their time to trial and rate all entries against comparison varieties.  

The AAS winners outperform other similar varieties that are currently in the market.  Varieties include both edibles and ornamentals.  Qualities of an AAS winner include:

1. better tasting vegetables
2. longer blooming annuals
3. superior disease resistance
4. unique colors or qualities
5. more flowers or fruit per plant

Winners are announced three times per year in November, January, and July.  The very extensive AAS website provides information about every AAS winner dating back to 1933.  There is helpful information about specific plant needs, characteristics, how and where to grow, judges’ observations, and where to buy seeds.  The location of all AAS Display Gardens, including a map, are also on the AAS website, and the public is encouraged to visit the gardens.

Upon conclusion of trials and announcement of winners, the Display Gardens (FOHC being one) are then provided seeds to plant in their gardens.

 

More FOHC Vegetable Projects