Calendars, clothes pins and memberships are top suggestions
Either of these master gardener-created gardening guides/calendars make a great gift. The seeds? Perfect for stocking gifts. Kathy Morrison
With less than a week until Christmas, crunch time is here for anyone choosing gifts. Still need a few small stocking goodies? Want to find a gift for that kind neighbor with the colorful garden? If you have a gardener among friends or family members, I have these can't-miss suggestions:
A gift you can walk in and buy right now:
-- Either Gardening Guide and Calendar produced by two area UC master gardener groups is, right off, my top choice for any area gardener. The Sacramento County version is best for those in the Sacramento area or flatlands of the Central Valley. The 2025 theme covers things gardeners are "Passionate About," such as succulents, fragrant plants or gardening with kids.
The Placer County master gardeners also have an excellent guide/calendar, aimed more at gardening in the foothills. "Healthy Garden, Healthy You" is the theme, and the price is $12. Find it at more than two dozen retailers in Placer and El Dorado counties; the link to the full list is here. Online and mail orders also are accepted.
Sacramento's also is $12 and can be found at several nurseries: The Plant Foundry, Emigh Hardware, Talini's and the four Green Acres in the county, plus the Wild Birds and Gardens store. (Call first to make sure a particular store still has it in stock.) It also can be ordered online here; postage is extra.
Great little stocking gifts:
-- Seeds, but not just any seeds. Look for seeds from Hedgerow Farms, now carried at Green Acres stores. These seeds are grown in Winters, at a farm that provides California native plant seed for large-scale conservation and habitat restoration projects around the state. The retail seeds are a side business. My choice: The Central Valley wildflower mix, but they also have native milkweed seeds (showy and narrow-leaf), tidy tips, blue-eyed grass, lacy phacelia and more. Prices are 99 cents to $4.95.
-- Wooden clothes pins. Check the local hardware store or some big-box stores for these. Usually in a pack of 36. Endlessly useful in the garden, as fertilizer or soil bag clips, trellis assistance, shade cloth clips and even plant markers. The wooden ones last much longer than plastic ones.
A gift for the whole year, easily purchased online:
-- Membership in the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. The Arboretum is a regional treasure, with its acres of native and other plants, quiet spaces to observe nature, and a top-notch Teaching Nursery. Members get deals on the fall and spring plant sales in addition to supporting all the good work that goes into maintaining the Arboretum. Plus, members get discounts and free admissions to gardens throughout North America, and discounts on purchases at select nurseries and online retailers.
For gift memberships, check this page. Individual memberships start at $48, and $72 for a family. The main Friends membership page is here.
(Psst: The spring plant sale dates have been announced! Mark your calendar for March 8, April 6, April 26 and May 10.)
Happy holidays!
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Food in My Back Yard Series
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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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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