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Right here: A rare place to see well-tested vegetable varieties

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED FEB 12, 2019

Bundled up against the cold, master gardener Gail Pothour talks about the Horticulture Center being named an AAS Display Garden. (Photos:Kathy Morrison)

Horticulture Center includes AAS display garden this year

Hardy souls who braved the cold and wet over the weekend at the UCCE master gardeners' Horticulture Center in Fair Oaks were treated to a bit of delightful news: The site's extensive vegetable garden this year is an All-America Selections display garden.

This means every variety of summer vegetable, herb and flower chosen for the nine raised beds, the planting barrels and even the straw-bale garden will be from the AAS seed library. The seeds are from the 2014-19 years, said Gail Pothour, one of the vegetable garden specialists among the Sacramento County master gardeners.

So what's the big deal? Any plant variety named an AAS winner has been tested all over the United States and Canada, in different climates, and been found to be an exceptional producer.

Display gardens can be flowers only, edibles only, or both. Of the nearly 200 display gardens AAS lists in the U.S. and Canada, just seven are in California. The next closest is in Walnut Creek.

Solid cabbage heads, a first for the Horticulture Center.

Right now, two of the Horticulture Center's raised beds are planted in AAS winter varieties. "We have our first solid cabbage heads, ever," Pothour said, poking a plant of the Katarina variety, the head already the size of a softball.

This means home gardeners don't have to guess how a certain seed or plant is going to work in Sacramento County: Everything grown in the vegetable garden will have the AAS stamp of approval.

Of course, not everything is guaranteed to survive garden pests. Pothour said birds ate all the broccoli sprouts before the master gardeners could get them protected with row covers. But there are plenty of plants to see now, and many more are being started this month for transplanting in spring. The next Open Garden is set for March 9.

Another popular offering at Saturday's event was the hot compost demonstration. Several types of compost bins were on display, with the master gardeners' favorites labeled: The geo-bin is the easier of the two to set up, but the wooden stacking style also works well. The master gardeners also opened a worm composting box for display

Young visitors at the Open Garden meet some worms from the compost box.

and kids were able to get up close and personal with the red wigglers before the cold wind and rain sent all gardeners scurrying for home.

A separate worm composting workshop will be offered Feb. 23 at the UC Cooperative Extension headquarters, and a Backyard Composting 101 workshop is scheduled March 5 at the ACC Senior Services. For details, visit sacmg.ucanr.edu .

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AAS winners UCCE master gardeners seeds composting gardening Sacramento events summer produce vegetable gardens winter vegetables

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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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