Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Get smart before you spray for pests!

Learn about pesticides during free webinar

Several bottles of pesticides
Do you know what you're spraying on your garden?
Learn about pesticides during a free webinar
from the UC IPM. (Photo courtesy Fred Hoffman)


What you don’t know can kill you. When it comes to pesticides, that’s particularly true.

By definition, these common chemicals are killers. Their intended target may be pests – bugs, mites and destructive critters of all kinds – but they can be extremely dangerous to people, pets and beneficial wildlife, too.

How do you handle these deadly chemicals? With care – and education.

Learn about pesticides – how to use them, store them, dispose of them and more – during a free webinar presented by the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Urban and Community Program.

Set for noon Thursday, Nov. 18, “Understanding Pesticides” also will include how to cut down on chemical use in the garden.
Karey Windbiel-Rojas , associate director for Urban & Community IPM and an area IPM adviser for Yolo and Sacramento counties, will be the presenter.

“Pesticides can be a part of integrated pest management efforts to control pests around the home and landscape,” say the organizers. “However, it is important to understand how to use them safely and effectively to protect human health, non-target species, and the environment. This webinar will cover pesticide basics including types of pesticides, understanding pesticide labels, and how to use them safely.”

Registration is now open for this one-hour webinar and is necessary to receive the Zoom link. To sign up, go to: https://bit.ly/3oi9hEZ .

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Local News

Ad for California Local

Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 12

Once the winds die down, it’s good winter gardening weather with plenty to do:

* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.

* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.

* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.

* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.

* After the wind stops, apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.

* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)

* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.

* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.

* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.

* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.

* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.

* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.

* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.

* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.

* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!