Free event includes speakers, demonstrations, vendors
On Aug. 3, the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center will again be filled with master gardeners, interesting displays, informational talks — and lots of shade — during Harvest Day. Kathy Morrison
Harvest Day will be here before you know it! The "gardener's dream day" returns to the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on Saturday, Aug. 3.
The Sacramento County master gardeners have been working for months on their annual celebration of gardening. The free event features speakers, demonstrations, garden-oriented vendors, food trucks and dozens of education tables.
The event starts at 8 a.m. and runs to 2 p.m., with plenty of shade -- nature-provided as well as umbrellas and pop-ups.
The main speakers this year cover some great topics:
-- "Nurturing Soils and Bagged Mixes for Better Plants," Kevin Marini, community education specialist, home horticulture and defensible space, UCCE Placer and Nevada counties;
-- "Container Grown Fruit Trees: Pros and Cons," Ed Laivo, fruit tree specialist, Ed Able Solutions;
-- "Plants That Grow Well in Zone 9b," Greg Gayton, marketing and community outreach, Green Acres Nursery & Supply.
Mini talks by master gardeners also will be offered throughout the morning, covering such topics as succulents, table grapes, unusual kitchen herbs, making a herbarium, pruning cane berries, composting with worms and how to control codling moths.
In each of the Horticulture Centers gardens will be displays, plus master gardeners staffing those areas who enjoy answering guests' questions.
The 2025 Garden Guide and Calendar will be for sale for the first time on Harvest Day.
The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd. Fair Oaks, just south of Madison Avenue.
For more information on Sacramento County master gardener events, go to https:/sacmg.ucanr.edu
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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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