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Discover the buzz at California Honey Festival

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED APR 30, 2019

Hard-working bees and their honey are celebrated Saturday at the California Honey Festival, Woodland.

(Photo: Kathy Morrison

Bee-happy free event fills downtown Woodland on Saturday

Love honey? Interested in helping bees? Want more fruit and vegetables in your own garden?

Catch the buzz at the third annual California Honey Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 4, in downtown Woodland.

In partnership with the Honey and Pollination Center and the Robert Mondavi Institute of Food & Wine at UC Davis, this free festival is dedicated to all things honey and bee-related. It has quickly grown into one of the largest events of its kind.

Honeybees continue to be in peril. This family-friendly fest combines education about how to help bees and the issues these important pollinators face with the delicious product of their work – honey. Downtown Woodland has embraced the Honey Fest’s message with restaurants offering honey-filled menus and bars serving honey-laced drinks.

At Saturday’s festival, scores of vendors will offer honey-related products in booths along Main Street between First and Third streets. Taste dozens of different honeys and discover their wide range of flavors. (Not all honeys are sweet!)

Learn how to help bees by creating pollinator-friendly gardens filled with flowers that bees love (and need). Ever thought about beekeeping? This place will get you inspired and supply you with the basics.

A bee flits among Betty Boop roses. Learn how to help bees during the

California Honey Festival on Saturday. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Sample honey-based mead as well as beer and wine in the bee-happy festival garden. Plus there will be plenty of tasty honey-enhanced things to eat.

A cooking stage will offer demonstrations all day on using honey as a sugar substitute as well as making the most of this special ingredient. The UC Davis educational stage features eight workshops, ranging from beginning beekeeping and how to make mead to attracting more bees to the urban landscape. There’s also lots of family entertainment, including Uncle Jer’s Traveling Bee Show (3 p.m.). Find the full schedule here: https://californiahoneyfestival.com/schedule/

In addition, celebrity landscape expert Ahmad Hassan of “Yard Crashers” will host the festival’s Pollinator Garden, offering his expertise on how to plant your own bee-friendly habitat.

Proceeds from the festival support several bee- and pollinator-related non-profit programs and projects aimed at supporting bee health worldwide.

Details: www.californiahoneyfestival.com .

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Keywords:

gardening Sacramento family events bees spring gardens Yolo County events honey Woodland pollinators UC Davis

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Garden Checklist for week of April 21

This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.

* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* 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.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* 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.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, 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.

* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.

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