Visit during Open Garden Day this Saturday
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It should be a beautiful day Saturday for the Open Garden at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. (Photo:
Kathy Morrison)
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It's June, and the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is bursting with activity in all areas. The Sacramento County master gardeners are ready to show what almost-summer looks like at their beautiful demonstration garden this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Master gardeners will be available in all areas of the FOHC to answer questions. The weather should be perfect for strolling -- a high of 77 degrees is forecast.
These are some of the activities that visitors can expect, the master gardeners note:
-- Water-Efficient Landscape Gardens: Methods of using water wisely.
-- Herb Garden: Harvesting, gathering seeds and drying herbs.
-- Orchard: Fruit thinning and summer pruning. Check out how the Orchard Team protects fruit from critters.
-- Berries: Ever tickled a blueberry? The Berry Team can show how to do it.
-- Vegetables: Methods for managing unwanted pests with the most recent research-based sustainable practices. Check out how the vegetables are growing.
-- Vineyard: Managing the grape canopy, shoot, leaf and cluster thinning for a vigorous crop.
-- Compost Embrace composting in day-to-day household activities by recycling fruit and vegetable scraps and yard trimmings. Find out how easy backyard composting can be. Learn about California's new food waste composting law, too.
The Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, south of Madison, in Fair Oaks Park, next to the Fair Oaks Library.
This will be the last Open Garden before the Aug. 6 Harvest Day celebration at FOHC. The Sacramento County master gardeners will be back at their booth to answer gardening questions during the State Fair, July 15-31. Open Garden days will return in September. For more information, (916) 875-6913, sacmg.ucanr.edu , facebook.com/sacmg
-- Kathy Morrison
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 8
Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.
* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.
* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.
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