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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 .

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Garden Checklist for week of June 8

Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:

* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.

* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.

* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.

* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.

* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

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