New year starts out soggy (or worse)
Be prepared for mud while learning about rose care
Learn from the region's master gardeners this month
Sierra Foothills Rose Society hosts free workshop -- and a chili cookoff
Watch for falling trees and branches
Watch out for leaning trunks and sagging branches
Vegetarian tortilla soup is adaptable to all tastes
New year starts soggy, with more rain on the way
Tips to help make 2023 your best gardening year
Check out the offerings from the region's master gardeners
Up to 3 inches of rain expected in Sacramento through
Fruit trees, roses, berries and more available 'naked' and ready to plant
Turn that holiday centerpiece into mulch
Lemon bread pudding with Greek yogurt, raisins and almonds
Expect a wet finale to 2022 with widespread rain
'Yuletide' brightens holidays, feeds hummingbirds with December blooms
Feathered friends need food help in winter
Northern California winter forecast is for rain but not too cold
Don't cut the plant back while weather is still cold
Damp weather has kicked some fungal diseases into high gear
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 5
Take advantage of this break between storm systems to give your garden some much-needed TLC.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranuculous and gladiolus for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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