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Arboretum's garden gnomes here to help

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 20, 2020

"Ask the Garden Gnomes" is a twice-weekly garden "talk show" on Facebook Live. (Photo UC Davis Arboretum)

UCD Arboretum tries creative outreach during COVID crisis

It’s not quite “Walk with Warren,” but it’s Arboretum garden fun during COVID-19 restrictions.

Twice a week, the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden hosts its own garden talk show, “Ask the Garden Gnomes.” Streamed on Facebook Live, the program invites viewers to ask gardening questions as well as showcases the natural world inside the Arboretum.

It’s free, fun and educational with something for gardeners of all ages.

The one-hour shows stream live at 10 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The next gnome adventure is set for 10 a.m. Thursday, May 21.

Details and links: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/events/ask-garden-gnomes-2

Meanwhile, the Arboretum’s popular events such as guided tours with Superintendent Emeritus Warren Roberts and plant sales are still on hold. Organizers hope those restrictions will be lifted soon. Stay posted with the arboretum’s newsletter, “The Leaflet”; sign up here: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/subscribe

Although group events have been canceled until further notice, the arboretum is still open daily to visitors and monitored by personnel. Patrons are asked to practice social distancing and stay at least 6 feet apart.

Where to start your arboretum exploration? Two interns, Kelly Nishimura and Wyatt Garrett, created a fun way to see a lot of the campus’s public gardens: “Arboretum Bingo.” (Details: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/news/play-arboretum-bingo ). See the arboretum and share it with friends via social media. It’s an entertaining game for kids, too, as well as a creative way to keep people engaged with the gardens when the normal way of doing things won’t work.

Along that same line, another intern, Madissen Hamberlin, created “May Madness: California Native Plant Showdown.” This online game asks patrons to vote for their favorite native flora via Facebook and Instagram. (Can the poppy take it all?) Details: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/may-madness

The arboretum’s interns are part of its Leading by Learning program. While classes have moved online, interns are working on educational and environmental projects including these entertaining social media introductions to the arboretum and its vast plant collections.

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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