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Give UC Davis' Good Life Garden a helping hand

Volunteers needed for spring renovation; learn about vegetable planting


Smiling volunteers
Join in Community Volunteer Day on Saturday at the UC Davis Good Life Garden. (Photo courtesy UC Davis Arboretum & Public Gardens)

What better way to celebrate spring than getting your hands dirty?

This Saturday, March 26, the UC Davis Arboretum is looking for helping hands to participate in its Community Volunteer Day. The project: Replanting the beds at the Good Life Garden in the courtyard of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science,

“Join us for another volunteer day!” say the organizers. “Get outside, get your hands dirty and help beautify the Good Life Garden while getting tips on the best prep and planting methods for growing veggies.”

As a sampler of California’s bounty, the Good Life Garden features dozens of varieties of vegetables, fruit and herbs. In addition, bee-friendly flowers bring in beneficial insects. With its ever-changing edible landscape, the garden has become a popular venue for weddings and major campus events.

Volunteers will tackle the project from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. Participation is free, but volunteers should register in advance. Space is limited.

To register: https://bit.ly/3DaNV3h

For more on the arboretum: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu . The Mondavi Institute can be reached from the Old Davis Road exit off Interstate 80. Link to the campus map is here .

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Garden Checklist for week of May 18

Get outside early in the morning while temperatures are still cool – and get to work!

* 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. 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.

* Are birds picking your fruit off trees before it’s ripe? Try hanging strips of aluminum foil on tree branches. The shiny, dangling strips help deter birds from making themselves at home.

* 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.

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