Fresh tomato soup uses only five ingredients
Fall kicks off with sunny, summery days
Bird walk, farm tour and seed saving workshop offered Sept. 24; register in advance
Fall starts Thursday after summer ended with a splash.
Unique private garden is a living lesson in feng shui.
Free family fun, gardening inspiration and lots of pumpkins are part of Sept. 24 event.
What to expect during Sacramento's 2022 Farm-to-Fork Street Festival on Sept. 23 and 24.
Savor the taste of late-summer produce
Is your garden ready for a rainstorm?
Get advice, lunch and succulents at hands-on event
Timely workshops for fall planting season
Help grow the next generation of native oaks
Find native plants that are perfect for our climate
See the newest exotic cultivars as well as old favorites
Turn those early apples into an almost-fall treat
What to do in the garden now the heat has subsided
The combination of extreme heat plus smoke has stressed plants as well as people.
Bring gardening questions to this free public event
Hardy tropical plants can handle high temperatures.
Broccoli: It's green, it's healthy, and it can be a challenge to grow in warmer areas.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.