El Dorado County master gardeners offer advice for growing vegetables, fruit, flowers and more at higher elevations
Master gardeners will demonstrate all sorts of garden tasks while answering questions during Open Garden Days at Sherwood Demonstration Garden. Courtesy of UC Master Gardeners of El Dorado County
Garden in the Sierra foothills can be challenging; just ask anyone who has deer for neighbors.
Higher elevations can go from too cold to plant to too hot to grow in only a few weeks. (Sometimes, it feels overnight.)
What’s a foothill gardener to do?
Ask the UC Master Gardeners of El Dorado County. Every Friday and Saturday (weather permitting), the foothill gardening experts host Open Garden Days at Sherwood Demonstration Garden in Placerville. That includes Friday and Saturday, May 24 and 25. Admission is free.
From 9 a.m. to noon, master gardeners will be stationed in Sherwood’s demonstration stations to answer questions and tackle garden tasks. These experts teach by doing and the public is invited to watch.
“As Master Gardeners, we are committed to educating the general public on sustainable horticulture and pest management practices based on traditional, current, and evolving research,” say the hosts. “It is our goal that the Sherwood Demonstration Garden will provide the public with a hands-on, interactive experience about research-based, sustainable gardening practices specific to the west slope of El Dorado County, appropriate for all ages and cultures, and reflective of a variety of environments and gardening experiences.”
Of course, a lot of the information and experience applies to gardening throughout the foothills and greater Sacramento area. It’s also a lovely place to visit and gain inspiration.
“There are 16 individual demonstrations gardens ranging from the Shade Garden to the Rock Garden and everything in between!” say the master gardeners.
At 9 a.m. June 1, the master gardeners will host a “First Saturday Garden Tour,” with a guided walk through all 16 gardens.
Sherwood is located at 6699 Campus Dr, Placerville.
Details and directions: https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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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.
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