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Busy garden event weekend across the region


Expect plant lovers to turn out for the UC Davis Arboretum Nursery spring clearance sale. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Master gardeners' Open Garden, a big Arboretum plant sale and a Placer County tour add to crowded calendar



If you haven't made plans yet for this weekend, garden fans, we have even more possibilities for you. Debbie's already written about
Bloomtastic in Newcastle and the David Lubin garden tour in East Sacramento, not to mention the Chrysanthemum Society's rooted-cuttings sale .

Yes, there's more, because it's May and the weather is perfect and we are all so happy to be outside.

In Fair Oaks on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon, the Sacramento County UCCE master gardeners will fully staff their Horticulture Center for the May Open Garden event. This free, informal event is a great opportunity to ask the experts questions on just about any gardening topic, and to see firsthand how the several garden sites in the Horticulture Center are progressing as spring edges toward summer.

At 10 a.m. a straw-bale gardening demonstration will be held in the vegetable garden. Last year, master gardener Gail Pothour and her crew planted sweet potatoes in the bales and grew a bumper crop. It will be fun to see what the bales will produce this year.

Also, a mini talk at 10:30 a.m. in the Water Efficient Landscape (WEL) Garden will cover container gardening, important especially for gardeners with limited space.

In February, the Horticulture Center's All-America Selections display garden
was all about greens. The spring vegetable garden should be well under way;
check it out at the Open Garden this weekend. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)
Otherwise, there will be ongoing demos and activities including fruit tree planting ideas, in the orchard;  spring planting and grooming beds for summer growth, in the herb garden; irrigation, in the WEL Garden;  tips on keeping birds off berries, in the berry area; planning for warm-season crops, in the vegetable garden; canopy management, in the vineyard, and information on compost bins, in the compost area.

The Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, just south of the Fair Oaks Library.

Across the causeway, the big spring plant clearance sale gets under way at 9 a.m. Saturday at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery. The one-acre nursery will cut prices 25 percent for Arboretum members and 15 percent for the public. If you've been looking for California native plants, perennials, shrubs or even trees to fill out your landscape, this is the place.

The nursery sales also are staffed with master gardeners, who can answer questions and make recommendations. Children's activities and music are part of the event, too, making it an excellent family outing for plant lovers. The sale runs until 1 p.m. A link on their website leads to the complete list of plants on sale.

Another family event, a Mother's Day garden tour, takes place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in Granite Bay, Loomis and Rocklin. This is an annual event presented by the Placer County master gardeners, and, like the East Sacramento tour, it offers a rare peek at impressive private gardens.

Tickets are $20 per person; children under 12 admitted free. Tickets are available in advance at Eisley Nursery in Auburn, and the Rocklin and Roseville locations of Green Acres Nursery and Supply. Information: http://pcmg.ucanr.org/






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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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