Pumpkin contests, workshops and games are part of garden fun for the whole family
Pumpkins and squash and gourds galore are available at all seven Green Acres locations. This Saturday, during the Fall Festival, each site will hold a pumpkin decorating/carving contest. Photo courtesy Green Acres Nursery & Supply
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 30, all seven Green Acres locations will host gardening fun for the whole family. Admission and parking are free.
Each location is hosting a pumpkin decorating contest. Decorate and/or carve the pumpkin in advance and enter it before 9:30 a.m. at the store’s contest table. “Your pumpkin may be large or small, painted or carved, it's up to your imagination,” says Green Acres. Categories include Scariest, Silliest and Most Creative. Winners will be announced Monday, Oct. 2.
Need a pumpkin? Pumpkin patches are already open at each Green Acres. Among the featured varieties: Carving, Fairytale, Lumina, Lil’ Pump-Ke-Mon, Cinderella, Jarrahdale, Big Max, Cronus, Iron Man, Knucklehead, One Too Many and Lunch Lady plus mini pumpkins, winged gourds and gooseneck gourds.
On Saturday, kids can paint a pumpkin at special activity stations. Kids of all ages can play pumpkin bowling or corn hole. Listen to live music, take part in a scavenger hunt or try to win dessert in a pie walk. In addition, the Auburn store will host a petting zoo.
DIY workshops will show how to plant a pumpkin with succulents or pot up mums combined with other fall flowers for a container garden with instant pops of autumn color.
Local garden groups will host information tables. The Sacramento County master gardeners will be on site at the Sacramento and Elk Grove stores from 9 a.m. to noon to answer gardening questions. Get advice on what to plant now and other seasonal gardening tips.
The line-up of entertainment and activities is a little different at each location. Find it here: https://idiggreenacres.com/pages/fall-festival-2023.
Green Acres is located in Sacramento, Auburn, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Rocklin and Roseville.
For addresses and directions: https://idiggreenacres.com/.
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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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