Master gardeners will be on hand to answer questions and show off what's growing now
The Welcome Area of the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is shady and cool in the morning hours. Kathy Morrison
It’s going to be cooler Saturday. Yes, really. And everything in the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center will be looking as good as possible for visitors to Open Garden Day from 9 a.m. to noon.
The Sacramento County master gardeners’ Open Garden Days aren’t quite the productions that Harvest Day is: no speakers or vendor booths, for example. But there will be plenty of master gardeners on hand, working in the FOHC’s gardens and available to answer all kinds of gardening questions.
The 2023 Garden Guide and Calendar also will be on sale during Open Garden. Just $10, it is a great resource throughout the year -- and makes a nice gift, too. Proceeds benefit the master gardener program.
Open Garden Day is free and open to the public. The Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., south of Madison Avenue and the Fair Oaks Library. For a map and details: https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/?calitem=521778
Incidentally, applications for the 2023 master gardener training class open tomorrow, Sept. 9. So if you’ve ever envisioned yourself as a master gardener, this could be the year to apply! Sacramento County’s program does not train every year; the class of 2020 is the most recent one. Applicants must be residents of Sacramento County; other counties have their own training programs.
The application period closes Oct. 17. Applicants can attend one of two “Meet the Master Gardeners” events, at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 or 9 a.m. Oct. 19 at the UCCE office, 4145 Branch Center Road, Sacramento.
What is a master gardener, anyway? They are all ages but generally are volunteers who educate home gardeners through workshops, events, presentations and the online and phone Help Desk, sharing UC research-based home horticultural information with the public. New master gardeners are required to put in 50 hours of volunteer time the first year; veterans have a 25-hour requirement. Twelve hours of continuing education per year also is required for all master gardeners.
Hint from a member of that 2020 class: Folks with a history of or interest in volunteering — in any capacity, church, school, community, whatever — do very well. Gardening interest, but not expertise, is expected. It also helps if you like a good research hunt. As my class was told, “We don’t expect you to memorize everything, but we expect you to know where to look it up.”
More information on the training program is here: https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Master_Gardener_Training/
– Kathy Morrison
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
Local News
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of July 21
Your garden needs you!
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
* Feed vegetable plants bone meal, rock phosphate or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting. (But wait until daily high temperatures drop out of the 100s.)
* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.
* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.
* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.
* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.
* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.
* It's not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.
* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers.
Powered by California Local
