El Dorado County master gardeners offer free workshop at Sherwood Demonstration Garden
Peach trees and other orchard trees can benefit from summer pruning. Get tips on how to do it from the El Dorado County master gardeners this Saturday. Kathy Morrison
Got fruit? If your backyard orchard produces a sparse harvest (or so much that limbs break under the load), consider the benefits of summer pruning.
Learn how at a free workshop at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 27, at Sherwood Demonstration Garden in Placerville.
Hosted by the El Dorado County master gardeners, “Summer Fruit Tree Pruning” will cover the basics plus a lot more. During this three-hour class, master gardener Phyllis Lee will demonstrate techniques as well as what to look for, using Sherwood’s own orchard as an example.
“Summer fruit tree pruning is a science and an art,” say the master gardeners. “Come out to the beautiful and educational Sherwood Demonstration Garden to learn the benefits of summer fruit tree pruning: What to prune in the summer versus winter, the reasoning, creating fruitful trees, and more.”
Advance registration is encouraged but not required. Find it here: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=42879
“Also, we have plenty of space, but a shortage of chairs; if you can, please bring your own folding chair,” say the hosts.
This workshop is a great way to learn more about keeping fruit trees healthy and productive. Say the master gardeners, “In this informative class for beginners as well as intermediate learners, different pruning techniques will be demonstrated along with general fruit tree care of pome (apple, pear, etc.), stone (peach, plum, cherry, etc.), persimmon and citrus trees.”
Although the class is free, parking is $2. Sherwood Demonstration Garden is located behind Folsom Lake College’s El Dorado Center at 6699 Campus Drive, Placerville.
Saturday morning is also Open Garden at Sherwood; visitors are welcome to ask master gardeners questions on a wide range of topics and garden activities.
Details and directions: https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/.
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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.
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