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Mountain Mandarin Festival will go on



The Mountain Mandarin Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary. (Photo courtesy Mountain Mandarin Festival.)


Silver lining to smoky weekend, popular citrus event marks 25th anniversary

Mandarins are ready, so this silver anniversary will go on.

Despite reports to the contrary, the 25th annual Mountain Mandarin Festival will be held as planned this weekend, Nov. 16-18, at the Gold Country Fairgrounds, 1273 High St., Auburn.

Wildfire smoke canceled several other local events, but air quality is expected to improve Saturday and Sunday, event organizers said. The festival holds some activities indoors.

With cooking contests and food galore, the Mountain Mandarin Festival celebrates the arrival of this local citrus crop. Dozens of local growers will be on hand to offer their fruit as well as mandarin-related products such as sauces, marmalade and baked goods.

The festival also is a major event for the Placer County master gardeners. They staff a booth all three days of the show, offering advice on how to grow citrus and much more. This festival, they’ll also give away free seeds.

At the festival, the master gardeners will offer their popular and very useful 2019 Calendar and Gardening Guide ($10) written specifically with foothill gardeners in mind.

Admission for today’s 11 a.m.-5 p.m. preview day, Nov. 16, is $4 for everyone. Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, with $8 general admission, $5 seniors. Children age 12 and under admitted free. Parking is $6.


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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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