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Plan and plant ahead with 2025 Gardening Guide

Placer County master gardeners will sell new information-packed calendar at Auburn Home and Harvest Fest

The Placer County master gardeners' 2025 Gardening Guide and Calendar is on sale now. Find it at the master gardeners' booth at the Auburn show.

The Placer County master gardeners' 2025 Gardening Guide and Calendar is on sale now. Find it at the master gardeners' booth at the Auburn show. Kathy Morrison

For gardeners, it’s never too early to think ahead.

Sunday starts a new season – fall – which is a perfect time to plant for winter and spring, while planning for next summer, too.

For all that planning and planting, pick up a copy of the just-released 2025 Gardening Guide and Calendar, presented by the UC Master Gardeners of Placer County.

Packed with the results of the latest UC research, this award-winning annual publication is much more than handy day-by-day reminders. It’s jam-packed with year-round information on how to make your garden thrive – especially if you garden in our foothill communities or the Central Valley.

The 2025 theme: “Healthy Garden, Healthy You” with a special focus on food gardening.

“There has been a surge this year in people interested in growing their own food,” says master gardener Paula Agostini, co-chair of the group’s calendar committee. “This taps into that enthusiasm and can help North Californians, from beginners to experts, create, grow and harvest a healthy, sustainable garden.”

Many of these edible plants are also highly ornamental; they look good while they produce food.

Each month offers inspiration, too, such as “Creating a relaxing garden” (the theme for August) or “Home office plants benefit you and also your team at work” (November).

The Gardening Guide and Calendar is priced at $12 including tax or five for $55. (It makes a great gift.) It can be ordered via credit card online at: https://pcmg.ucanr.edu/2025_Calendar/.

Or pick up a copy in person this weekend at the Auburn Home and Harvest Fest at the Gold Country Fairgrounds. The master gardeners will staff a booth all three days of this huge home and garden show. They’ll answer garden questions as well as sell the new garden guide.
Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22.
Tickets are $5 general. Discounts are available for purchasing tickets in advance online. Parking is $10.

Gold Country Fairgrounds is located at 209 Fairgate Road, Auburn.

Tickets and more info: https://auburnshows.com/.

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2

Get out early in the morning and monitor your garden’s moisture needs. Deep water and add temporary shade structures for plants that are feeling a little burned. In particular, protect developing peppers and eggplant.

* Put off fertilization until this heat passes; plants need to concentrate on hydration instead of growth.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. Make sure to keep seeds and seedlings consistently moist.

* Plant potatoes.

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Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series

Lessons learned during a year of edible gardening

WINTER

Is edible gardening possible indoors?

Hints for choosing tomato seeds

Starting in seed starting

Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees

When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

How to squeeze more food into less space

Potatoes from the garden

Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Win the weed war by tackling them in winter

Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables

Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

Ways to win the fight against weeds

FALL

Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden

Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it

Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come

Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying

Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?

Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden

Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden

Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers

Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air 

Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets

Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty

Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?

Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest 

SUMMER

Sept. 16: Time to shut it down? 

Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch

Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning

Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?

Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you

Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water

Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers

July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?

July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty

July 15: Does this plant need water?

July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions

July 1: How to grow summer salad greens

June 24:  Weird stuff that's perfectly normal

SPRING

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