Sessions focus on straw-bale gardening, vegetable growing
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Here's one example of a straw-bale garden, at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center
in May 2018. Sweet potatoes were planted in the bales that year. (Photo: Kathy
Morrison)
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Any gardener who'd just as soon not risk a crowd, even outdoors, right now should be happy to know that the region's master gardeners have your back.
Two free Zoom online workshops are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22:
-- 9 a.m. to noon. "Spring and Summer Vegetables" is the topic covered by the El Dorado master gardeners. Master gardener Zack Dowell will discuss garden plant selection, planting times, site selection, soil preparation, proper seed planting techniques, and pest management.
Registration is free but required here: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=36315
Visit the El Dorado master gardeners' website https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/ to see what else they have planned for workshops through March.
-- 10:30-11:30 a.m. "Straw-Bale Gardening" is offered by the Placer County master gardeners. Straw-bale gardening in easily conditioned straw bales, they note, offers "no soil, no digging, no bending, only a trowel needed." The workshop will show how to set up and condition the bales, which can be used for all types of vegetables, from tomatoes to sweet potatoes, as well as herbs or flowers.
The Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83410416355?
Passcode: garden
The Placer master gardeners' main website is https://pcmg.ucanr.org/ where the calendar of all their late-winter Zoom workshops is available.
-- Kathy Morrison
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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 9
Be careful walking or working in wet soil; it compacts easily.
* Keep the irrigation turned off; the ground is plenty wet with more rain on the way.
* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.
* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.
* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).
* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.
* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.
* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.
* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.
* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.
* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.