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Get help for fall from region's master gardeners

Open garden, classes in-person and on Zoom are scheduled

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED SEP 2, 2021

At the Sept. 11 Open Garden, check out what's growing in the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center's Vegetable Garden. (Bet there will be kale.) (Photo:

Kathy Morrison)

The light is changing, the summer garden is winding down. As planning and planting for fall begin in earnest, gardeners can reap loads of advice from the UCCE master gardeners of the region. While each of the counties has its own program, the advice each group offers is often applicable across the Sacramento gardening area, with some tweaks for microclimates.

Here are some upcoming master gardener classes and events:

--- The Yolo County master gardeners will hold a "Kitchen Garden Chat" this Saturday, Sept. 4, starting at 10 a.m. The master gardeners will discuss "how to finish up your summer garden, what to do with your winter garden and seed saving." The event will be both in person -- at the Leake Room of the Woodland Library -- and on Zoom. The link to join via Zoom is here: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/95676702285

-- The Open Garden on Saturday, Sept. 11, from 9 a.m. to noon, will be the first by the Sacramento County master gardeners since February 2020. The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, the MGs' demonstration garden, has undergone several changes since then, including the installation of the beautiful Chuck Ingels Memorial Gate. The FOHC is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks.

Master gardeners will be on hand to answer questions about composting, orchard and vineyard care, winter vegetables, berry and herb gardening, and landscaping with limited water. Gardeners with questions can bring samples or pictures of problem plants to the Ask a Master Gardener table. The Gardening Guide and Calendar also will be on sale, for $10. For more information: http://sacmg.ucanr.edu/?calitem=389780

-- Invasive plants! Preventing them is the focus of a "Wild Wanderers" Zoom workshop presented from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, by the Placer County master gardeners. Learn how to fight "Thugs, Multipliers and Pests," as the MGs call them. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89053008203? passcode: garden.

This is the beautiful cover of the Placer master

gardeners' Gardening Guide and Calendar.

The Placer Master gardeners will release their 2022 Gardening Guide and Calendar on Sept. 7. For a sneak peek, go here: http://pcmg.ucanr.org/2022_Calendar/

-- Another valuable Zoom class, "Landscape Transformation," is offered online from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, by the master gardeners of El Dorado and Amador counties. Registration is free but required; to register go here: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=35346

-- Kathy Morrison

NOTE FOR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS

Sacramento Digs Gardening plans to change (and upgrade, we hope) our newsletter distribution service soon. Anyone already on our subscription list will be migrated to our new list, but you may be asked to reconfirm your interest in receiving the newsletter version of our blog. The blog itself will stay at its present blogspot address for now, but also will move to a new site later this fall, giving us more flexibility in design and offerings.

Thanks for reading!

Debbie and Kathy

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Keywords:

UCCE master gardeners fall vegetables Sacramento free class kitchen gardens fall planting gardening workshops Fair Oaks Horticulture Center garden advice Open Garden invasive plants

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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