Sacramento County master gardeners host area’s biggest free garden event of its kind
Master gardeners welcome visitors to the Horticulture Center's Berry Patch during Harvest Day 2023. This year's event will be held Saturday, Aug. 3, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Fair Oaks. Kathy Morrison
The countdown has officially begun! Sacramento’s biggest free garden gathering of its kind returns Saturday, Aug. 3, as the Sacramento County master gardeners host their annual Harvest Day.
From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (in Fair Oaks Park) will be packed with people eager to learn more about all sorts of gardening, from fruit tree care to water-wise landscaping.
Billed as a “Gardener’s Dream Day,” this event annually draws hundreds if not thousands of enthusiastic gardeners of all ages and experience levels. Admission and parking are free. No pets, please.
Scores of vendors and garden-related clubs and enterprises will be on hand to offer their products, services or advice. (Drop by the Sacramento Digs Gardening table to say hi.)
Arrive early to beat the heat; the expected temperature at 8 a.m. will be only 68 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Although Saturday’s forecast high is 99 degrees, it will take awhile to get there. Before noon, it should still be under 90. (Wear sun screen and a hat.)
Fortunately, there’s plenty of shade in the Speakers Tent, where the featured presenters will give their talks. All are scheduled for the morning:
* At 8:30 a.m., longtime master gardener and farm adviser Kevin Marini, community education specialist for the UC Coorperative Extension master gardener programs in Placer and Nevada counties, will dish the dirt on building better soil – right out of the bag – in his talk, “Nurturing Soils and Bagged Mixes for Better Plants.” (Marini is also an expert on compost and fire-wise landscaping.)
* At 9:45 a.m., fruit tree expert Ed Laivo of Ed Able Solutions will tackle “Container Grown Fruit Trees: Pros and Cons.” Laivo, who hosts how-to videos on his popular YouTube channel, has been working with dwarf fruit trees for more than 45 years.
* At 11 a.m., Greg Gayton – the charming chief garden guru for Green Acres Nursery & Supply – will give Sacramento-area gardeners tips for local success with “Plants That Grow Well in Zone 9b.” (That’s Sacramento’s official USDA Plant Hardiness Zone.) It’s all about putting the right plant in the right place.
Starting at 8:45 a.m., mini talks by master gardeners will be offered at stations throughout the Hort Center. They’ll cover such topics as succulents, table grapes, unusual kitchen herbs, making a herbarium, pruning cane berries, composting with worms and how to control codling moths. (If you find little worms in your apples, you’ve got codling moths.)
The Hort Center itself is a living classroom with new displays featured throughout the demonstration gardens. Got questions? This is the place to find answers as master gardeners tackle guests’ garden dilemmas. (Bring examples in zipped plastic bags; photos are good, too.)
Can’t wait to get a start on next year’s garden? The master gardeners’ wonderful 2025 Garden Guide and Calendar makes its debut on Harvest Day; buy your copy at the event.
The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, just south of Madison Avenue.
Details: https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Harvest_Day/.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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Garden Checklist for week of May 18
Get outside early in the morning while temperatures are still cool – and get to work!
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. Transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Are birds picking your fruit off trees before it’s ripe? Try hanging strips of aluminum foil on tree branches. The shiny, dangling strips help deter birds from making themselves at home.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
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