Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society hosts 53rd annual show and sale at Shepard Center.
NEW Blueberry-lemon coffee cake with streusel topping.
Coolish June weather continues but watch out for threat of thunderstorms.
Don't make a home for disease-carrying pests; take precautions
Raising awareness of these plants is a statewide effort
Soil Born offers hands-on workshop in its American River Ranch orchard
Free workshop covers how to grow, harvest and use this popular herb
Sacramento Center for Textile Arts celebrates International Yarn Bombing Day
NEW No cooking involved in this seasonal creation
With more coolish weather ahead, there's still time to plant for summer
Yolo master gardeners present an online and in-person chat Saturday
That's 1,825 posts and counting -- all related to local gardening
SDG's Debbie Arrington among experts at Fair Oaks event
See Poswalls' Springhill near Lincoln and a hidden Newcastle oasis
Learn how to grow, enjoy this favorite flowering herb
NEW Sunny strawberry-Meyer lemon preserves without added pectin
Make most of mild Memorial Day weekend weather
How to make the most now of our unusual spring combination
Free compost available to residents in pilot recycling program
Huge sale and educational event set for Memorial Day weekend in Elk Grove
Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 5
Take advantage of this break between storm systems to give your garden some much-needed TLC.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranuculous and gladiolus for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.