Sacramento master gardeners staff Horticulture Center for Open Garden Day
The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is pleasant and shady in the late-summer morning light. Kathy Morrison
The light has started to shift into that golden fall glow, have you noticed? To gardeners, that signals a great season for planting. This Saturday's Open Garden Day at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is the perfect time to check out what's growing and can be grown in fall.
Open Garden Day is a free, informal event, running from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 9. All areas of the Horticulture Center will be staffed with UCCE master gardeners, who are happy to discuss what's planted in the various areas: Berry Garden, Herb Garden, Orchard, Vegetable Garden, Vineyard and Water-Efficient Landscape. And the master gardeners in the Compost Area are ready to answer questions about organic waste recycling and can show off their hard-working red wigglers in the worm composting bin.
Have a perplexing gardening question or an unidentified pest? Bring along plant or bug samples (preferably in plastic bags) and visit the Ask the Master Gardener table -- or talk to any of the master gardeners onsite.
Two special presentations are planned during the morning:
-- 10 a.m. "Warm Season Weeds, Cool Season Weeds."
-- 11 a.m. "Making Your Yard Wildlife Friendly."
The new Gardening Guide and Calendar also will be on sale during the event. The 2024 theme is "Habitat Gardening." The publication's price is $12; cash or check only at this event. (It also can be ordered using a credit card on the Sacramento master gardeners' website, https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Gardening_Guide/)
The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is located at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., just south of the Fair Oaks Library.
Plan ahead: The final Open Garden Day of 2023 will be Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 9 a.m. to noon.
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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.
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