Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Cool it on a garden tour, then check in on the sun


The Japanese garden is one of 16 sites within the Sherwood Demonstration
Garden in Placerville. (Photo courtesy UCCE El Dorado master gardeners)
Two weekend events in Placerville promise family fun

There are many cool places to hang out this weekend but one of the coolest for gardeners is the Sherwood Demonstration Garden in Placerville. And this Saturday morning you can get a guided tour of the place for free. Stick around after that tour and visit the Community Observatory for a free viewing of our garden pal, the sun.

The demonstration garden is a production of El Dorado County's UCCE master gardeners. Both events are at the El Dorado Center of Folsom Lake College, 6699 Campus Drive, Placerville.

The garden tour starts promptly at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, July 6, is one hour long and is open to individuals and small groups. Participants should arrive 10 minutes early. No reservations are required and no fee is charged, though the $2 college parking fee applies. (Exact change is required.) No dogs are allowed in the garden.

Master Gardener Sue McDavid will lead the group through the 16 individual demonstration gardens that showcase the growing conditions and microclimates of western El Dorado County. The plants all are sustainably grown for the gardens, which range from a rose garden to a rock garden. An orchard, a marsh and a native plants garden also are part of the site. Information:
http://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/Demonstration_Garden

The Community Observatory will be open from 10 a.m. to 11:59 a.m. The observatory volunteers will show the sun through their safe solar telescopes, viewing both white light and hydrogen-alpha. Viewers will be able to see sunspots, prominences and maybe even a flare, they say.

Can't make the sun viewing? The observatory will also have night sky viewing at 8:30 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday. For more information: www.communityobservatory.com

-- Kathy Morrison

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Local News

Ad for California Local

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

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.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!