Visit during Open Garden Day this Saturday
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It should be a beautiful day Saturday for the Open Garden at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. (Photo:
Kathy Morrison)
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It's June, and the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is bursting with activity in all areas. The Sacramento County master gardeners are ready to show what almost-summer looks like at their beautiful demonstration garden this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Master gardeners will be available in all areas of the FOHC to answer questions. The weather should be perfect for strolling -- a high of 77 degrees is forecast.
These are some of the activities that visitors can expect, the master gardeners note:
-- Water-Efficient Landscape Gardens: Methods of using water wisely.
-- Herb Garden: Harvesting, gathering seeds and drying herbs.
-- Orchard: Fruit thinning and summer pruning. Check out how the Orchard Team protects fruit from critters.
-- Berries: Ever tickled a blueberry? The Berry Team can show how to do it.
-- Vegetables: Methods for managing unwanted pests with the most recent research-based sustainable practices. Check out how the vegetables are growing.
-- Vineyard: Managing the grape canopy, shoot, leaf and cluster thinning for a vigorous crop.
-- Compost Embrace composting in day-to-day household activities by recycling fruit and vegetable scraps and yard trimmings. Find out how easy backyard composting can be. Learn about California's new food waste composting law, too.
The Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, south of Madison, in Fair Oaks Park, next to the Fair Oaks Library.
This will be the last Open Garden before the Aug. 6 Harvest Day celebration at FOHC. The Sacramento County master gardeners will be back at their booth to answer gardening questions during the State Fair, July 15-31. Open Garden days will return in September. For more information, (916) 875-6913, sacmg.ucanr.edu , facebook.com/sacmg
-- 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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