Daily gardening blog reaches its sixth anniversary -- thanks to our readers!
This citrus cake is ideal for any celebration. See the blog post for a link to the recipe. Kathy Morrison
Happy birthday to us! It’s time for cake!
On Saturday (June 1), Sacramento Digs Gardening celebrates its sixth anniversary. Since June 1, 2018, we’ve posted (at least) one original story every day to our website. And with technology willing, almost all of those stories went out the same day as our e-newsletter.
That’s 2,191 blog posts – all devoted to local gardening and homegrown food.
We started Sunday recipes early on in this journey (July 2018) and now have more than 300 recipes posted online. To make them easier to access for our readers, we broke them down into four seasonal e-cookbooks that are also available online. That series started with “Taste Spring!” and continued with compilations for Summer, Fall and Winter.
Did I mention readers can access all this for free? No paywall, no fees; just good solid local information at your fingertips. We truly are news you can use.
Because all gardening is local, and gardeners need vetted local expertise for the best chances at success.
Your SDG team – Debbie Arrington and Kathy Morrison – are that kind of experts. We obviously care deeply about Sacramento-area gardening because that’s where we garden, too.
Over the years, we’ve developed SDG into the kind of gardening blog we’d like to read: Packed with events and information about what we need to know now. (And then, what to do with all that fruit and vegetables we grew.)
What keeps us writing and posting? Our readers. We now have about 2,500 followers on Facebook who are looking for us every day. Our average Facebook readers tend to be a lot like us: Women over age 60. (In fact, 83% of our Facebook followers are female and, like Facebook in general, tend to skew toward boomers.)
But Facebook is just one way people find SDG. Thanks to our sponsor Green Acres Nursery & Supply, nursery customers can find direct links to our website and recipes via new signs with QR codes.
We also see a lot of readers from our web host, CaliforniaLocal.com, and from search engines. According to its data, “Sacramento Digs Gardening” showed up in 23,823 Google searches since December 2022 when we migrated to the CaliforniaLocal.com platform. Our website has had more than 141,000 page views since that move, too. That’s almost 8,000 page views a month. Thank you, California Local!
To keep going and growing, SDG needs sponsors. We’re thankful for Green Acres’ support as well as that of our original sponsor, the Regional Water Authority/BeWaterSmart.info, and its “Summer Strong” campaign.
We’re always looking for more sponsors. (If you’re interested, reach out directly to us at sacdigsgardening@gmail.com.)
Later this summer, you can meet us in person on Aug. 3 at the Sacramento County master gardeners’ annual Harvest Day at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in Fair Oaks Park. (More on that as we get closer to the event.)
Meanwhile, what about that cake? Try our zesty one-bowl citrus cake. (Recipe here: https://sacdigsgardening.californialocal.com/article/30939-spring-recipes-from-sacramento-digs-gardening-california/884-desserts-and-sweets/10242-celebrate-spring-with-citrus-cake/)
And thank you for reading!
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
Local News
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
Powered by California Local
