Below-average temperatures could prolong season for tomatoes, other summer vegetables
Nursery manager Taylor Lewis, who died Aug. 8, made a lasting impact on landscapes and people
This info-packed calendar is like having a master gardener in your back pocket
Elk Grove store hosts three workshops plus huge sale
Solano County experts also will host two propagation workshops
Home & garden event returns to Roseville's Roebbelen Center
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Settle in for some normal August warmth after temperature drop
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Rio Linda Grange presents Zucchini Festival on Saturday
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Placer County master gardeners show how they turned unused turf into their new demonstration garden at Loomis Library
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After a record hot July, expect more triple digits (and hot August nights)
From grape pruning to worm composting, hands-on 'mini-talks' provide wealth of information -- all free!
Sacramento Digs Gardening's booth returns this year
Family-friendly exhibit extended at Sonoma Botanical Garden
Sacramento-area vendors offer their unique creations, plants at Saturday event
Sacramento County master gardeners host area’s biggest free garden event of its kind
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.