Yolo master gardeners also offer in-person workshop
Growing vegetables outside your back door is easy, healthy and fun. Learn about edible gardening this weekend from the Yolo County master gardeners. Kathy Morrison
The pandemic forced so many meetings and workshops onto Zoom, but these online calls proved to have an up-side: They could easily draw folks from all over. So Zoom continues as a viable option for master gardener presentations.
This Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. the Yolo County master gardeners will hold their monthly “Kitchen Garden Chat” on Zoom, so you needn’t be in Woodland or Davis to participate.
The workshop will cover what to do and plant in the February edible garden. Information to be covered includes how to read a seed packet, determining saved seed viability, and chores for fruit trees and grapevines.
The event is free and open to the public. The Zoom link is https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/98028723763
However, Zoom isn’t your comfort zone, you might drop in on an in-person session on “Gardening for Year Round Meals,” also this Saturday, from 11 a.m. to noon at Grace Garden behind Davis Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson Road in Davis.
“Gardening for Year Round Meals” is led by Yolo County master gardener Karen Slinkard. She plans to discuss starting seeds indoors for warm-season crops, what to plant outdoors in February, growing fresh herbs and how to use them, planning and enjoying edible flowers, and how to include the highly nutritious winter produce in your meals.
This event also is free and open to the public. “Gardening For Year Round Meals” meets on the second Saturday of every month, at 11 a.m. For more information, contact Slinkard at kslinka@gmail.com.
For all the Yolo County master gardener activities, see their website at https://yolomg.ucanr.edu/
– Kathy Morrison
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Local News
Thanks to our sponsor!
Sites We Like
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.
Powered by California Local
