Still a few more opportunities to add to your garden for a good cause
We're not done with spring plant sales. Take a look:
-- From 1 p.m. today through Monday, the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery holds its fourth spring online plant sale. Still many great plants in stock, including natives, Arboretum All-Stars, shrubs, trees and herbs. To see the plant list, visit this page and open either the pdf or Excel list. Curbside pickup will be scheduled May 6-11, Sunday excluded. Go other here for plant sale details and how to join the Friends of the Arboretum, who get 10 percent off on their purchases.
And for those who like to plan ahead, the teaching nursery's online clearance sale will be May 20-24, with pickup available May 27-May 29 and June 1-2; no pickup Sunday, May 30, or on Memorial Day, May 31.
-- Saturday, May 8, is the date for the annual plant sale by the Roseville Better Gardens Club, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Valley Springs Presbyterian Church, 2401 Olympus Drive, Roseville. This is a new location for the sale; the church is off Professional Drive/Douglas Boulevard, east of Interstate 80.
The club says there will be locally grown plants including veggies, annual and perennial flowers, ornamental grasses, houseplants, cacti and succulents. In addition there will be fresh flower arrangements, garden items, garden art, baked goods and books.
This sale is strictly cash only.
These sales, like earlier ones, help fund the organizations and their efforts in the community. The Arboretum sale page notes: "By shopping these sales, you support the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden's environmental leadership programs, the growth of our gardens and collections and the wide variety of free, educational events we offer the public."
Proceeds from the Roseville Better Garden Club's sale help fund its scholarship program as well as educate the community about gardening, conservation and wildlife.
So what better reason is there to buy some more plants?
-- Kathy Morrison
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Food in My Back Yard Series
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of April 20
Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!
* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, 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.
* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.
* 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.
* 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.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.