Open Garden Day this month is on Wednesday morning
The ceanothus is in bloom at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, and the bees know it. Kathy Morrison
The weather crimped the calendar for plants as well as for people this year. But having experienced some days of sunshine now, the natives and other perennials beginning to bloom, as are the blueberries, the scented geraniums and the fruit trees.
All this botanical activity and more will be on display Wednesday, April 12, when the master gardeners open the gates to the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center for Open Garden Day. The event runs from 9 a.m. to noon and is free to the public.
The Horticulture Center is the showcase for the UC master gardener program in Sacramento County. It features several focus gardens, including an orchard, vegetable garden, herb garden, vineyard, berry garden and compost demonstration area.
The Water Efficient Landscape, in the front of the center, features many native plants and other plants that are water-efficient and appropriate for home gardens. The WEL is open daily, but the other areas are open only during Open Garden days and Harvest Day (that's Aug. 5 this year).
Visitors are welcome to stroll the grounds, be inspired by the plantings and, especially, ask questions of the many master gardeners who will be working in the gardens. The Ask a Master Gardener table will be staffed to help gardeners with their plant problems or mysteries. (Bring samples!)
Additional Open Garden days this spring are scheduled on May 4 (4-7 p.m.); May 20 (9 a.m. to noon) and June 17 (9 a.m. to noon). The Horticulture Center is located at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., just south of Fair Oaks Park and Fair Oaks Library off Madison Avenue.
Find more about the Sacramento County master gardener programs and events at sacmg.ucanr.edu.
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Note: Due to operator error (mine), the Wednesday blog post, about the Sherwood Demonstration Garden in Placerville, didn't go out in the newsletter as it usually does. Readers can find it here:
https://sacdigsgardening.californialocal.com/article/32724-open-gardens-eldorado-sales/
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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 April 20
Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!
* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.
* Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.
* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.
* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.
* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.
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