Sherwood Demonstration Garden adds hours, tours
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The Japanese garden is one of the showpieces
of the Sherwood Demonstration Garden in
Placerville. (Photo courtesy El Dorado County
master gardeners)
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Now that it is March, the El Dorado County master gardeners' beautiful demonstration garden in Placerville has shifted into longer public hours and resumed docent-led tours.
The Sherwood Demonstration Garden is located at the El Dorado Center of Folsom Lake College, 6699 Campus Drive. The garden now is open 9 a.m. to noon every Friday and Saturday through November, unless there is a 60 percent or more chance of rain forecast. (Other closure alerts, more appropriate for summer: A forecast of 95 degrees or more from 9 a.m. to noon, or if air quality level hits 150.)
Master-gardener-led tours are offered on the first Saturday of the month, including this Saturday, March 5. The tours are free, starting promptly at 9 a.m. If no one appears to take the tour, the guide will leave at 9:15 a.m. Group tours can be arranged by emailing mgeldorado@ucanr.edu or calling (530) 621-5512.
What is there to see at Sherwood? So many plants: 16 garden areas, from rock garden to perennials garden, as well as a native plants garden, shade garden, Japanese garden and a children's garden. This link leads to an artistic map of the garden.
Note: No dogs are allowed in the garden. Daily parking passes on the college property are $2. Directions are here .
(Bonus for visitors this Saturday: The Community Observatory also at the El Dorado Center will be open for solar viewing from 10 a.m. to 11:59 a.m. Find out more information here .)
The El Dorado master gardeners also offer free public education classes. An in-person class on "Firewise Landscaping" will be taught by Alice Cantelow on Wednesday, March 9, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Cameron Park Community Center, 2502 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park. Call or email the contacts listed above to register.
-- Kathy Morrison
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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