Basics and more in Placer County master gardeners' online workshop
So pretty in spring, but they should be planted now.
Learn how to get maximum effect from bulbs. (Photo: Kathy Morrison) |
It's bulb-planting season!
It's also time for gardeners to project themselves into the future -- specifically next spring. Anyone who wants clutches of tulips, clumps of hyacinths or dozens of daffodils in the 2022 garden must plan and plant now.
Where to start? The UC Master Gardeners of Placer County have that answer and more in their free Zoom workshop, "The Magic of Bulbs," this Saturday, Oct. 23, at 10:30 a.m.
The hourlong session will cover bulbs of all kinds, from buying and planting to caring and naturalizing. Learn how deep to plant daffodils, for example, or why tulip bulbs might need to be refrigerated before planting.
The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84105448029? and the passcode is: garden.
Incidentally, the Placer master gardeners' previous recorded workshops are listed and linked here: https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgplacer/files/354097.pdf Plenty of good information there, including composting and mulching, container gardening and growing citrus. Great viewing for a rainy day!
The Placer County master gardeners' website home page, with links to even more gardening information, 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.