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Help plant fruit trees -- and take one home

Free trees offered for community orchard volunteers

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 7, 2021

Get a free fruit tree (apple here for illustration) and help the
community at the same time during a planting day this Friday.
(Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Help a community grow its own fruit – and get a free fruit tree, too!

Ninos Community Garden, part of the City of Sacramento’s community garden network, is hosting a fruit tree planting day from 8 a.m. to noon Friday, June 11.

Serving Sacramento’s Gardenland Northgate neighborhood, the Ninos Community Garden is located at 703 Northfield Drive, Sacramento. Featuring 40 plots and lots of open space, the garden opened in 2016.

The plan has been to add fruit trees and shrubs to the site for some time to create a community orchard for the Ninos Garden.

“To make planting easier, the holes will have been pre-dug,” said Bill Maynard, the city’s community garden coordinator. “Those that help plant the 60 or so trees and shrubs will be given a fruit tree to take home.”

If interested, please sign up: https://www.handsonsacto.org/opportunity/a0C2G00000ztCK7UAM

“Wear a mask, bring gloves and a refillable water bottle,” Maynard said. “Tools will be provided.”

As for other COVID concerns, there’s plenty of room for social distancing, too.

“The site is three acres (with) plenty of room to move around as the tree and shrubs will be planted 10 to 15 feet apart,” Maynard said.

For more details and directions: https://bit.ly/3pu43G8

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Keywords:

volunteering City of Sacramento gardening Sacramento events trees tree planting community gardens fruit trees home orchard

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Garden Checklist for week of April 21

This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.

* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.

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