Those gift-of-the-month deals are thoughtful, but how about a gift that gives every day of the year? Gardeners of all levels of experience will appreciate a Gardening Guide and Calendar created by local master gardeners. The Sacramento and Placer County groups each produce their own calendar, tailored for the local climate.
The Sacramento County Gardening Guide focuses on "Fruit: Something Old, Something New" for 2022, including descriptions of exotic fruit -- dragon fruit! jujubes! -- plus planting and pruning tips. The calendar has plenty of room to make notes on your garden's progress. I like to include weather details, too, so I can track rain, frost warnings and heat spikes.
But there is a wealth of other information packed into and along with the calendar portion. Monthly maintenance reminders, a vegetable planting chart, tips for frost protection and disease prevention -- it's like having your own garden consultant on hand at all times. Great photos, too.
All this for $10, including tax, when purchased in person at Sacramento MG events such as Open Gardens (next one is Jan. 22). Alternatively, the Gardening Guide can be ordered online; see details here. Some area nurseries also sell the calendar, potentially for a slightly higher price. The list of those retailers can be found here .
Sacramento County's master gardener website is sacmg.ucanr.edu . Check it out for garden info of all kinds, as well as details on "Bright Lights, Garden Delights" to be held Monday evenings this month at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center.
The Placer version is sold out online, but is still available at retailers in Placer, Nevada and El Dorado counties; the list of those is here . (It's best to call ahead and check whether a particular store still has the Gardening Guides in stock.)
The Placer County master gardeners' website is https://pcmg.ucanr.org/
-- 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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