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Fall farm activities Saturday at Soil Born


Soil Born Farms' American River Ranch is kid-friendly. Families can spend Saturday at the Farm this weekend. (Photo:
Kathy Morrison)

Rancho Cordova site hosts day of family fun

The fall weather's still lovely, perfect for a family outing this weekend. And Sacramento-area residents won't have to go far to find a good spot.

Soil Born Farms, the urban agriculture and education project, opens its American River Ranch in Rancho Cordova this Saturday, Nov. 16, for Saturday at the Farm.

The events run 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature music by Doug Newton, plus a variety of free kids activities: creating seed mosaics in the Activity Tent, building fairy and gnome homes in the Enchanted Garden, and making music on the instrument fence in Li'l Sproutville. The site offers plenty of room for kids to play and explore, too.

The Soil Born Culinary Arts team will hold a fundraiser, offering Indian red lentil soup and kale-roasted squash salad served with garlic naan. Their creations will be available at the Farmhouse Kitchen window starting at 10 a.m. until sold out.

Other foods and beverage will be available at Phoebe's Tea & Snack Bar, including baked goods from Old Soul Co. and various pies from Sacramento's Real Pie Company.

Gardeners can find organic seeds, seasonal veggie and flower starts, herbs, fruit trees and handcrafted garden boxes at the Greenhouse Garden Shop. The Farmstand also will be open, with a large selection of farm produce, including herbs, many kinds of winter squash, Pink Lady apples, pomegranates and persimmons. And anyone working through their holiday gift list can browse the garden tools and other items at Milly's Mercantile.

If you like to start your day off with a brisk walk, on Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. Soil Born also offers a bird walk with naturalist Cliff Hawley. There's still time to sign up on their
website ; cost for the bird walk is $10.

American River Ranch is at 2140 Chase Drive in Rancho Cordova. Biking or walking to the ranch is encouraged. There is parking nearby, but be prepared to walk in; comfortable shoes are a must.

-- 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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