El Dorado, Placer master gardeners offer workshops
California flannel bush is an attractive California native plant that requires no summer watering once established. Kathy Morrison
With the fall plant sale season starting up, this is a great time to learn about landscaping with California natives.
The El Dorado County master gardeners will present a free “Native Plants” class this Saturday, Sept. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Sherwood Demonstration Garden.
Master gardener Alice Cantelow will teach interested folks how to choose and add colorful, easy-care native plants to their gardens. And there are so many benefits: Natives attract wildlife and pollinators, and they require less water and fertilizers than non-natives.
The Sherwood Demonstration Garden is at 6699 Campus Drive in Placerville. It incorporates 16 individual theme gardens. With the pleasant weather we’re experiencing this week, the garden would be a lovely place to visit; this Friday, Sept. 16, it will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon.
For more information on the natives class, the Sherwood garden, or other El Dorado master gardener activities, go to https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/
The Placer County master gardeners, meanwhile, at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday will offer a free “Lawn Replacement Workshop” class at the Loomis Library, 6050 Library Drive, Loomis.
A similar class, “Lawn Removal,” will be offered at the Roseville Utility Exploration Center, 1501 Pleasant Grove Blvd., at 10 a.m. Oct. 8. Pre-registration is required, however. Cost for this workshop is $5 for residents, $6 for non-residents.
Find more information on Placer County master gardener events at https://pcmg.ucanr.org/
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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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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