Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Learn how to start vegetables, flowers from seed

El Dorado County master gardeners offer free workshop

Tiny seeds quickly become tiny plants -- which become vegetables (in this case tomatoes) before you know it! Learn the best practices for seed-starting in Saturday's class.

Tiny seeds quickly become tiny plants -- which become vegetables (in this case tomatoes) before you know it! Learn the best practices for seed-starting in Saturday's class. Kathy Morrison

Growing vegetables and flowers from seed is the most economical way to produce food and blooms as well as add new plant varieties to your garden. But how do you get started?

Learn tips from experts during “Starting Plants from Seed,” a free workshop offered by the UCCE master gardeners of El Dorado County.

Set for 9 a.m. Saturday, March 30, this three-hour class was originally scheduled for earlier in March but had to be postponed.

The class will cover the basics of seed starting while focusing on spring and summer favorites. Participants also get to keep their “homework” – some newly planted seeds.

Master gardeners Debi Valerga, Donna Hauser and Monte Kruger will lead the workshop, to be held at Cameron Park Community Center, Classroom B. The class is free, but space is limited; participants are urged to register in advance. Find the link here: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=41927.

This class will include “a presentation on the selection and germination of seeds, starting media, containers, growing out, hardening off and transplanting seedlings,” say the master gardeners. “Following the presentation, participants will have an opportunity to plant seeds to take home. Seeds and containers are provided; bring clean gloves to participate.”

Cameron Park Community Center is located at 2502 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park.

Details and directions: https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Local News

Ad for California Local

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Garden Checklist for week of May 11

Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.

* 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.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* 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.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. 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.

* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.

* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!