2023 Gardening Guide and Calendar on sale now
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Now available: The 2023 Gardening Guide & Calendar.
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Harvest Day this month was so busy that the debut of the 2023 Gardening Guide and Calendar may have slipped under the radar. But with summer winding down, and fall planting ahead, now is the perfect time to buy a copy -- and several more for friends and family.
The Gardening Guide and Calendar is produced by the Sacramento County master gardeners, with a different theme each year. (Full disclosure: I wrote some pieces for and helped proof the publication.) Master gardener Laura Cerles-Rogers wrangles many articles and photos into the single most helpful guide for Sacramento-area gardeners that I've ever run across. The price, including tax, is still just $10.
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| March features bok choy. (Photo: Kathy Morrison) |
The back portion is a gardening magazine in itself: An extensive story on tomatoes, ideas for small-space gardening, a look at vegetable pests, an explanation of the Scoville scale of pepper hotness, and a host of other informative pieces. The so-helpful annual Planting Chart rounds out the pages.
The publication is available online at https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Gardening_Guide/ for mail delivery, and also will be sold in person at master gardener events the remainder of the year. (Coming up: Open Garden Day on Sept. 10.) Several nurseries in the region also typically carry it during the fall, although the price could be a little higher.
Proceeds from the sales benefit Sacramento County master gardener programs.
-- 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.
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