How to replace turf, prepare soil for future planting
Learn how to create a bioactive terrarium to take home
El Dorado County master gardeners offer free workshop with strategies for bountiful success
New! Easy fruit creation's worth a little oven time
Some like it hot; you’ll find out in your garden this week
Triple-digit temperatures can affect pollination, tomato development
Ideas for gardeners to revel in the long days and cool nights
Make a container garden to celebrate July Fourth
Shepard Center showcases art of Japanese flower arranging
Amador Flower Farm hosts annual Daylily Days with tram tours and barbecue
Recipe: Fresh raspberry fool with a rosy twist
Red Flag Warning signals dry conditions, high fire danger
Placer County master gardeners show how to attract more beneficial insects, birds and bats (yes, bats) to your landscape.
Green Acres presents a free talk on ‘pollinator buffets’ Saturday
Sacramento County master gardeners invite public to watch and learn at free event.
After successful fight against Oriental fruit fly, Sacramento County now battles Japanese beetles, which were discovered in Carmichael.
Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society hosts 54th annual show and sale at Shepard Center.
New! Late-spring combination works for summer cookouts, too
Be ready for more triple-digit heat (but it won’t last).
Green Acres' irrigation experts show how to put right plants in the right place for water-wise success.
Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of Dec. 22
* Between showers this week, check on your garden’s welfare. Clean up fallen branches and other debris. Don’t let water pool near foundations.
* When working (or just walking) in the garden, be careful of soggy ground; it can compact easily. Soggy soil also will rot newly planted bulbs. Wait until the soil is moist but not dripping wet.
* Rake leaves away from storm drains and gutters. Recycle those leaves as mulch or add to compost.
* Brighten the holidays with winter bloomers such as poinsettias, amaryllis and cyclamen indoors, and Iceland poppies, calendulas, pansies and primroses outdoors.
* Keep poinsettias in a sunny, warm location; bring them inside at night or if there’s rain. (They don’t like cold, wet weather.)
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while they’re dormant.
* Clean and sharpen garden tools before storing for the winter.
* Rake and remove dead leaves and stems from dormant perennials.
* Seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Once soil dries out a little, trees and shrubs can be planted now, especially bare-root varieties such as fruit trees or rose bushes. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from winter rains.
* Plant bare-root berries, kiwifruit, grapes, artichokes, horseradish and rhubarb.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.