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So many cool events this weekend

Water-wise gardening, lavender crafts, fascinating insects and a river habitat celebration

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED SEP 26, 2024

Ever held a walking stick insect? This Saturday afternoon the public can visit the Bohart Museum of Entomology, where this Ramulus nematodes (Great thin stick insect) and others like it live. And yes, it's an arthropod. Kathy Morrison

Here at Sacramento Digs Gardening, we do our best to keep up on gardening and nature-related events that readers would like to know about or attend. Our calendar in the newsletter has just 10 spots for the soonest events, but if you click on the Calendar button on our home page, you will see more further out.

This coming weekend, Sept. 28-29, is so packed with early fall events that we don't have room or time for individual posts on them. So this post aims to catch up with a few that might not be obvious.

-- Water Wise Garden Showcase, presented by the City of Sacramento, 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 28.

This is a free event at the Department of Utilities main campus, 1395 35th Ave., Sacramento. The city plans to feature more than a dozen gardening professionals, irrigation experts and landscape designers, as well as information about the city’s water-saving rebates and short educational talks.

Attendees can also enter a raffle for a chance to win a variety of water-saving tools and resources, including smart irrigation controllers and discounted landscape consultations.

Sacramento County master gardeners and California Native Plant Society members will be among the gardening experts available for questions and advice.

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1294809431730199

-- Fall Craft Fair, Wilton Family Lavender Farm. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28-29.

This family-friendly event at the lavender farm, 9050 Tavernor Road in Wilton, features two days of crafts, gifts, live music and an array of food trucks. This is a working farm and not open to the public all year, so this event is an excellent opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the area. Free admission. Licensed service animals only; no pets.

Information on the farm and Fall Craft Fair: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068918653557 and https://www.wiltonfamilylavenderfarm.com/

-- Open House, Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1-4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 28.

Ever visited the bugs (and other creatures) at the Bohart? This fascinating museum is on the UC Davis campus, in the Academic Surge Building, Room 1124, 455 Crocker Lane.

The museum holds periodic open house events; this is the first one of the fall. The theme for this event is "Museum ABCs: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting." Arthropods are animals with hard exoskeletons and jointed appendages, ranging from scorpions, mosquitoes and lady beetles to crabs, shrimp and lobsters.

Free admission and free weekend parking. More information: https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/

-- Family Fall Festival, presented by the Save the American River Association, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29.

This free event will be held at Stirling Park Drive and Rod Beaudry Drive (near the entrance of River Bend Park), Sacramento. The organizers say: "Learn about wildlife and critters, our California Pony Express, the historic William Alexander Leidesdorff Ranch and the Nisenan Indians native to the area." The Effie Yeaw Nature Center folks will be on site, too.

The event promises live music, nature walks (wear closed-toe shoes), educational speakers, a live bird show, arts and crafts, kids entertainment, and food and drink.

For more information on SARA and the event: https://www.sarariverwatch.org/events

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GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

fall September Sacramento gardening events family events free events weekend events plants American River Bohart Museum of Entomology UC Davis insects lavender Wilton water-wise gardening

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

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June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

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May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

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May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

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March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* 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. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* 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.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* 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.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* 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, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. 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.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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