Soggy week offers some gardening breaks
More pruning events set for Saturdays throughout January
Some trouble spots to look for before Saturday's storm
Yolo County master gardeners offer free Zoom workshop on insect, disease identification
Time to show your indoor garden some love
Rose society offers advice on transplanting -- and digging up – rose bushes
Lemon-persimmon muffins with lemon glaze
Rain and frost fill Sacramento’s forecast
Class with expert tips offered at all locations
Topics include salvias, blueberries, grasses and more
El Dorado master gardeners offer free workshop on biodiversity and sustainable gardening
Placer County master gardeners host free in-person workshop
Holiday storms put averages back on track
Easy snack for game days or binge-watching, too
New Year starts like the old year ends — kind of soggy
Sierra Foothills Rose Society offers free workshop with expert hands-on advice
Food, flowers and shelter especially needed in winter
It's time to start pruning; how to cue bushes to take a winter nap
Roseville class covers fruit tree care from planting to harvest
City of Sacramento, county offer options to turn trees into mulch
Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
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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.