Saturday class, presentations focus on vegetable gardening
For now we can dream of a tomato harvest like this. Kathy Morrison
Tomato gardeners and wannabe tomato gardeners, our time is coming! Eventually this year we’ll be able to plant, tend and harvest our favorite crop. Just not yet -- still too wet and cold.
In the meantime, learn about or refresh your memory on growing that precious harvest -- and other vegetables -- in two special events this weekend.
In the morning, learn about growing tomatoes, and then preserving them, at a special 3-hour class jointly taught by the El Dorado County master gardeners and master food preservers. “Tomatoes from Seed to Table” runs from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 25, at the El Dorado Hills CSD Teen Center (next to the CSD Skate Park), 1021 Harvard Way, El Dorado Hills.
Master gardeners will show how to choose the right varieties, deal with insects and diseases, care for and harvest your tomatoes. Master food preservers will talk about what you can do with your tomato harvest: canning, dehydrating and freezing. Instructors for this class are Zack Dowell, Suzanne Surburg and Cindy Young.
For more information on the El Dorado County master gardener programs and events, visit https://mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/
And if your hunger for vegetable gardening knowledge isn’t sated after that, stop in at the “Grow Orangevale” event at the Orangevale Library afterwards. Catch Sacramento County master gardeners, including “Farmer Fred” Hoffman, giving presentations on home vegetable gardening.
At 1 p.m., master gardener Andi McDonald will discuss the basics of starting and maintaining a home vegetable garden – what, when, and where to plant. At 2 p.m., Hoffman will present tips on spring gardening.
The Sacramento Public Library in Orangevale is at 8820 Greenback Lane, Suite L.
For other Sacramento master gardener events, visit https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* 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. (You also can 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.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
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