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Happy Arbor Week! Plant a tree


We love our trees in California, from gnarled valley oaks, like the one above, to wispy desert willows. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)
Special events, tree plantings in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova

California loves trees. So it's no surprise we take a whole week to celebrate Arbor Day.

According to the Arbor Day Foundation, California celebrates Arbor Week from March 7 through 14. That allows volunteer organizations plenty of opportunities to plant trees -- especially in the City of Trees.

Sacramento has been a Tree City USA community for 41 years, tied with Burbank as the longest tenure as a Tree City among 147 California communities with that distinction. (Davis is close behind at 40 years.) Just over 3,400 communities are Tree Cities nationwide.

The Sacramento Tree Foundation is celebrating Arbor Week with tree plantings at Valley Hi Park, 8185 Center Pkwy, Sacramento, on Saturday morning, 8:45 a.m. to noon, and Williamson Elementary School in Rancho Cordova on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, another Arbor Week celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Dave Roberts Park, 10805 Mapola Way, Rancho Cordova. The UCCE master gardeners of Sacramento County who specialize in landscape trees will staff a table where you can get your tree questions answered. Got a mystery tree, weed or pest? Bring a sample in a sealed plastic bag and get answers.

Most states have their own state Arbor Day or Week, staggered throughout the spring or fall, according to the National Arbor Day Foundation. There's one more tree holiday to remember. Held each year on the last Friday in April, National Arbor Day is April 26.

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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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