Sacramento Digs Gardening: Thankful for the gifts of the garden and gardening

Thanksgiving is such a busy day, mostly away from the garden. But before we plunge into winter, I like to stop and think of all the garden-related things I am grateful for. The following is an expansion of something I wrote a few years ago, but it still holds true. As gardeners, we receive many gifts:

-- Pollinators who do their thing in the garden without any prompting, and do even more with a little encouragement (and plants they love). From almonds to zucchini, California's crops and our home gardens depend on the bees, birds, butterflies, moths and other insects, and even a few four-legged creatures.
-- The trees that shade our homes, clean our air and give us organic matter in the fall, as well as provide food -- for us and for the wildlife -- as well as homes for birds and other creatures.
-- The magical soil below us, full of nutrients and microbes and earthworms and so many things we're not aware of as we walk over it or plant in it
-- Our gorgeous Mediterranean climate, which even as it's changing lets us work outside nearly year-round and grow so many things so well that we're the envy of the rest of the country's gardeners.
--The wonder of tiny seeds that turn into 2-pound tomatoes with just the right amount of tending. This never fails to amaze me every year.
-- Finally, the generosity of fellow gardeners, who give freely of seeds, plants, produce, tools and advice. (Looking at you especially, my master gardener friends.) If someone says, "Oh, you're a gardener, too!" you have instant rapport. It's a community to cherish -- an invaluable resource.

This Thanksgiving in particular, I'm thankful for the generous rainfall we've had this month, for the cold weather this week which will help sweeten the almost-ripe oranges, and the spectacular colors of the neighborhood trees -- soon to be valuable mulch or compost.

Enjoy your garden as the seasons change -- and rest up for the work ahead. Happy Thanksgiving!

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

Sacramento gardening holiday Thanksgiving fall November climate change weather edible gardens UC master gardeners trees mulch compost pollinators holiday traditions

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Food in My Back Yard Series

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 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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