From Woodland to Placerville, plenty of possibilities -- and a propagation workshop, too
Annual festival celebrates humongous gourds and family fun
Free community party features food, music, shopping and family fun
More than 30 clubs and vendors will offer wide range of plants, crafts, garden stuff and more.
Recipe: Fresh apple muffins with vanilla yogurt.
Light rain, cool temperatures and warm soil create great conditions for planting fall garden.
Patches are now open at local nurseries with thousands of possibilities; what to look for when pumpkin shopping.
Yolo master gardeners also to present garden talk, plant sale soon
Pumpkin contests, workshops and games are part of garden fun for the whole family
Get water-wise favorites and California natives in time for fall planting.
Sacramento show highlights floral freedom of expression
Spiced coffee cake an ideal treat for early-fall breakfast
Autumn starts on cool side – with a chance of rain coming soon
Eradication efforts underway to stop the spread of this highly destructive pest
Advice for the vegetable garden, orchard, roses -- and late-summer produce
American Bonsai Association, Sacramento, welcomes public to bid at Shepard Center
Huge street party set for Friday and Saturday on Capitol Mall
Placer County master gardeners to break ground on 11,000-square-foot project
Leftover beef pairs with fresh tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and green beans
Final days of summer will be perfect for fall planting
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.