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At the State Fair Farm, education is the key crop

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUL 19, 2019

At the State Fair, pick up a map at The Farm's Passport booth, then find the stamps to earn a free piece of fresh fruit. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Learning opportunities are growing all over

Three young adult fairgoers were strolling along the back of the State Fair's Farm when one of the trio exclaimed "Tomatoes!" I was close enough to hear, and turned in the direction they were looking. Instead of a tomato vine, they were next to a dwarf nectarine tree, the purple-red side of its ripe fruit almost glistening in the midday heat.

The figs are doing well at The Farm.

One of the others corrected him, but it was a good reminder that not everyone knows what our fresh California produce looks like while it's growing. And that's why The Farm exists all year round, not just the two-plus weeks the State Fair is open. School tours visit in spring and fall, when kids can see up close the developing fruits and vegetables representative of the state's many crops.

During the fair's run, which concludes July 28, The Farm offers an interactive activity (and not just for kids). Pick up a map that will lead you to five stations to learn about lemons, mint, avocados, peaches and Fresno peppers. Get a stamp at each stop, bring the stamped map back to the main booth, and get a free piece of fresh fruit. (I got an apple.) On the back of the map there's a recipe for a salad using those five ingredients, plus a $5 coupon for Save Mart, which sponsors The Farm.

Great, but what is there for those of us who already know our tomato vines from our orchard trees? Well, I like to see from year to year what is planted at The Farm, how things are thriving, and whether there's anything there I would like to add to my plantings.

A few years ago, I became fascinated with the arbor of hops at The Farm. That later prompted me to grow my own hops, with some help (and a hop rhizome) from New Helvetia Brewing's HIMBY (Hops In My Back Yard) program. My hops aren't as extensive as the fair's, but they do cast some shade this year, which is lovely.

Look up under the kiwi trees to see their fuzzy fruit.

The Farm has many other learning opportunities for gardeners. Want to grow grapes? Grapevines, check. Kiwis? The interlocked kiwi trees are amazing. Figs are ripening on fig trees. There are gourds climbing trellises, and even cotton plants growing in one of the raised beds. Want to know how much space pumpkins or watermelons take up? Easy to see that here. The Farm's corn is doing well, as are the peppers, but the strawberry and blueberry plants looked a little beat-up in the heat -- they could use some shade cloth.

The demonstration garden also has several 6-foot aeroponic towers, incredible space-savers that grow herbs and vegetables with moisture forced up the towers by pressurized air. Topped by chard and basil, these looked more lush than last year -- a very impressive feature.

In another area, The Farm has a good display on planting a water-wise garden, complete with drip irrigation and mulch examples. And the Pollinator Garden is free entertainment, if you like to watch bees at work.

And I can't forget to mention the UCCE master gardeners, who staff an information booth in The Farm every day of the fair. Bring your gardening questions to these folks who are experts on growing in the Sacramento region.

My one suggestion to The Farm organizers: Put more California native plants in the landscape area, and label them as such. As much as I love "Hot Lips" salvia, which is a cultivar, I'd rather see less of that and more of a native salvia such as hummingbird sage, which is just as pretty. Natives thrive better in our climate anyway.

The State Fair is open daily through July 28 at Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd., Sacramento . Gates open at 10 a.m. Fridays-Sundays, 11 a.m. the other weekdays. Closing time is 10 p.m., though The Farm area shuts at 6 p.m. Fair general admission is $14, but $12 for seniors, $10 for ages 5-12 and free for kids 4 and under. Parking has shot up to $15, so bring cash for that.

For more information on the fair, go to www.castatefair.org .

At The Farm, hop bines run along an arbor behind this raised bed, which includes a couple of aeroponic towers, plus annual flowers and some squash plants. (That wilting is normal in the heat, by the way.)

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Keywords:

UCCE master gardeners Sacramento farms events Cal Expo agriculture irrigation orchards State Fair gardening vegetables native plants backyard produce pollinators water-wise gardening

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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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