Elk Grove Garden Club, Burbank High events Saturday
Pilea 'Chocolate Soldier' plants will be among the houseplants (and many others) available Saturday at the Elk Grove Garden Club's sale. These pileas sport pink and chartreuse flowers when they start blooming. Kathy Morrison
The Sacramento region's plant sale season hits its peak in April. Two fundraising sales coming this Saturday, April 6, fall under the category of "If you know, you know." And plant bargains are guaranteed.
Starting at 8 a.m., the Elk Grove Garden Club's spring plant sale will have an inventory that benefits from the propagation expertise of many of its members. Think succulents, houseplants, vegetables, perennials, annuals and, they promise, "unusual plants." Garden crafts also will be sold.
Looking for your summer tomatoes? Varieties at this sale will include Berkeley Tie Dye, Carbon, Medium Rare, Ace 55 VF, San Marzano, Rutgers, and two popular cherry tomatoes, Super Sweet 100 and Sun Gold.
The sale takes place at a member's home, 8609 Brodie Ct., Elk Grove, east of Highway 99, a few blocks north of Elk Grove Boulevard. The sale runs until 1 p.m. Cash or check only accepted.
Meanwhile, up the road in Sacramento, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Burbank Urban Garden (BUG) will hold its spring plant sale. The plants all are raised by students in the Luther Burbank High School Urban Agriculture Academy.
The inventory will include veggie starts such as tomatoes, onions, peas, peppers, cucumber, melons, pumpkins and squash, plus herbs, and flowers including zinnias, cosmos and marigolds. The full inventory is available on the garden's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/BurbankUrbanGarden
Burbank High is located at 3500 Florin Road, west of Highway 99 in Sacramento. The BUG is in the back of the school property, off Luther Drive.
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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.