Learn how to make your own 'garden gold'
Compost makes great mulch for plants already growing, and will improve the soil over time, too. Kathy Morrison
One of the best ways to help your garden get through the heat of summer: Mulch.
This blanket of organic matter not only keeps roots cooler, but maintains moisture and feeds soil microbes.
Some of the best mulch? Well-aged compost – especially if made with your own kitchen scraps and garden waste.
Find out more, including how to make your own “garden gold,” during two free workshops offered by the Roseville Utility Exploration Center.
“Compost and Mulch” will be held on two Saturdays: Aug. 19 at the RUEC Tech Lab, 1501 Pleasant Grove Blvd., and repeated on Sept. 23 at the Maidu Community Center, 1550 Maidu Drive, Roseville. Each 90-minute class starts at 10 a.m.
Registration is required. Roseville’s workshops fill up quickly and seating is limited, so sign up now.
Here’s the class description: “Did you know yard debris and kitchen scraps can improve your soil? It’s true! Composting reduces waste sent to the landfill, helps you create your own free fertilizer, and saves water. Learn about bins, equipment, and materials used in a variety of composting styles.”
To sign up for “Compost and Mulch” or other free Roseville workshops: https://www.roseville.ca.us/residents/utility_exploration_center.
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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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