Placer County master gardeners show how to attract more beneficial insects, birds and bats (yes, bats) to your landscape
Squash blossoms need bees or other pollinators to produce squash, one of many crops dependent on outside help. Debbie Arrington
It’s time to talk about the birds and the bees (and butterflies, too). No, not that talk, but how we people can help wildlife while it helps our gardens, too.
A lot more critters than honeybees take part in flower pollination. Learn how to make pollinators feel at home in your landscape during the free workshop, “What's the Buzz about Pollinators?”
Offered by the Placer County master gardeners, this 90-minute class will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Roseville Utility Exploration Center (RUEC). The group will meet in the center’s courtyard to see nature in action.
“Bees? Please! Pollinators like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and bats are an integral part of our ecosystem and are beneficial in the garden,” say the organizers. “Learn about the different pollinators and their life cycles, what plants attract these hard workers and how to provide for their habitat. Before you know it, your garden will be fluttering with life.”
This course is just in time for Pollinator Week, June 17-23. All of June is designated as Pollinator Month.
The workshop is open to adults age 18 and up. Although the class is free, registration is required. Sign up here.
RUEC is located at 1500 Pleasant Grove Blvd., Roseville.
For more classes and details: https://pcmg.ucanr.edu/.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
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 22
Mornings this first week of summer will remain comfortably cool – just right for gardening!
* Water early in the morning to cut down on evaporation. Check soil moisture and deep water trees and shrubs. Keep new transplants and veggies evenly moist. Deep water tomatoes to encourage deep roots.
* 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.
* 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.
* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.
* Avoid pot “hot feet.” Place a 1-inch-thick board under container plants sitting on pavement. This little cushion helps insulate them from radiated heat.
* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.
* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.
* 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.
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