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Explore the Gardens Gone Native Tour online this weekend


At a garden in Woodland, a busy pollinator is oblivious to visitors during the 2019 Gardens Gone Native Tour. This year the tour will move online. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Virtual tour showcases Sacramento-area gardens planted in California natives

As healthy as it is to take breaks from the screen these days, this weekend you're going to want to make time for this big online event: the Gardens Gone Native Virtual Tour.

Saturday was supposed to be the 10th annual event in this self-guided tour organized by the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. The tour, including gardens in Yolo and Sacramento counties, is designed to spotlight the use of California native plants in home gardens.

But under the state's coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, the tour now will come to you through the internet. This link will go live Saturday, April 25:
http://www.sacvalleycnps.org/native-plant-gardening/garden-tour .

This restful scene was at a garden in Davis in 2019.
"You can still be inspired by a variety of gardens that showcase the beauty, versatility, and wildlife habitat value of native plants as well as their role in water efficient landscapes," says the Sac Valley CNPS chapter.

So look at all the amazing plants, take notes, and plan to put some of these beauties in your own garden. You might even be inspired to be part of the 2021 tour. And this year, at least, we'll all save on gas when moving from garden to garden.

To find out more about California native plants, visit the area chapter at www.sacvalleycnps.org (which has many links to articles and other garden videos) or the statewide organization at cnps.org .

-- Kathy Morrison

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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.

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