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

Annual gardening calendar like an expert at your elbow

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED AUG 12, 2018

Consider this calendar an essential garden tool.
(Photo: Kathy Morrison)

UCCE Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers team up for 2019 publication

The 2019 growing season isn’t that far away. Before it arrives, you’ll want to have in hand the best calendar for Sacramento-area gardeners.

The UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County annually produce a calendar stuffed with growing tips for each month. At $10, it’s a bargain, and even more so this year because the Master Gardeners have teamed with the Master Food Preservers to include methods and ideas for preserving your harvest.

The pages for January, for example, talk about choosing and growing citrus, plus harvest tips, and then ideas for saving those gorgeous oranges, Meyer lemons, grapefruit and more as juice, marmalade or candied peel. Recipes are in the back of the calendar for when you feel inspired.

The calendar also features a complete Seasonal Guide to Vegetable Planting for our region. (One tidbit gleaned from that: Hold off on planting the cilantro seedlings until October.) Plus there is information on container and straw-bale gardening, as well as the art of espaliering fruit trees.

Other items cover pollinators and plants that attract them, how to recognize pesky harlequin bugs, and an explanation of mosaic virus.

Every item is referenced to a UCANR publication that can provide more information. It’s like having a Master Gardener or Master Food Preserver always at the ready.

The calendars can be purchased now online at sacmg.ucanr.edu , as well as at any Master Gardener or Master Food Preserver event. Later in the fall, some retail outlets also will carry it, usually the better nurseries and hardware stores. Proceeds benefit all the MG and MFP events, workshops and classes, which are invaluable local resources.

-- Kathy Morrison

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

UCANR gardening Master Food Preservers Master Gardeners preserving Sacramento calendar planting guide canning pollinators

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Local News

Thanks to our sponsor!

Sites We Like

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.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!