Free workshop offers advice on fire-wise landscaping renovations
Did you know citrus trees are considered fire-smart plants? Learn about defensible space and firescaping options April 8. Kathy Morrison
Yes, your landscape can help protect your home against wildfire. It’s not just what you grow, but where.
Find out how during a free in-person workshop, offered by the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Placer County.
Set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 8, “Firescaping: Get ahead and slow the spread!” will spotlight the concept of “defensible space” – creating a buffer zone around your home or other structures and surrounding wildland. The one-hour session will be held at Loomis Library, 6050 Library Drive, Loomis.
“There is a way to organize your landscape and maintain your garden that will help create defensible space around your home,” say the master gardeners. “We’ll discuss what the research is telling us about the best practices we can implement in our landscapes to slow the spread of fire while still being able to enjoy a beautiful garden.”
A big difference between firescaping and low-water gardening: Plant choice. Such favorite low-water Mediterranean plants as rosemary burn easily due to the high oil or resin content in their leaves. Evergreen conifers such as pines also may not be fire-wise – even though they may be native. Low-water native grasses tend to burn rapidly.
Among the plants recommended for firescaping: Daylily, butterfly bush, lavender, salvia, coreopsis and ceanothus. Some fruits, too: Citrus and blueberries, for example.
With so much moisture in the soil, this spring will be a good time for landscape renovation; new plants will be quicker to get established. On the down side, all that rain will likely increase fire danger later this year due to lush vegetation in our foothills and wildlands.
Add the master gardeners, “With so many Placer County residents living amongst the wildland interface, the time is now to make a plan for your house and yard to create a firewise landscape.”
For more details: https://pcmg.ucanr.org/.
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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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