Whether celebrating native plants or neighborhoods, all are delightful
This fine fowl is among the "official greeter chickens" at one of the gardens on the River Park Garden Tour, April 26. The garden also includes a naturalized rock waterfall, raised beds for veggies and herbs, and a podocarpus hedge. River Park Garden Club
Here comes garden tour season! April and May are prime time for garden tours in the Sacramento region. Many of the events are fundraisers for area groups or schools, featuring lush gardens, impressive landscaping and often extras such as refreshments, gift shops and plants for sale.
One event, the Gardens Gone Native tour, is free and designed to spotlight California native plants in home or school landscapes. This marks the 12th annual tour, to be held May 3.
The dates come up quickly, and some tours sell out, so plan ahead. Here are all the tours we know about now, in calendar order:
Saturday, April 26
-- River Park Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The theme for the 5th annual tour is "Special Garden Spaces." Diverse gardens on a self-guided tour. Presented by the River Park Garden Club, one of Sacramento's oldest social clubs. River Park is off H Street, north of Sacramento State. Tickets are $5, available on tour day at 5458 Carlson Drive, Sacramento, or in advance by calling (916) 451-4658 (no calls after 8 p.m.). Children are admitted free but must be supervised by parents. No strollers or pets. Tour gardens are accessible.
-- 34th Curtis Park Home & Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $25 in advance, $30 day of tour. The tour includes five homes of various styles, with unique indoor/outdoor entertainment and kitchen spaces. The Capitol A’s Model A Ford Club will tour vintage cars throughout the neighborhood. The north end of Curtis Park will feature food trucks, live music by Midtown Jazz, information displays, and picnic tables and chairs. A fundraiser for the Sierra 2 Center and produced by the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association. Tickets available at www.Sierra2.org or at the Sierra 2 Center office, 2791 24th St. Sacramento.
Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27
-- 23rd Annual Gardens of Folsom Tour, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eight private gardens plus bonus gardens, a bake sale, a plant sale, a food truck and a raffle. Also, artists painting in the gardens and master gardeners on site to answer questions. Presented by the Folsom Garden Club to support scholarships. $25, tickets required for ages 16 and older. Tickets and pickup information available here.
Saturday, May 3
-- Gardens Gone Native, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society coordinates this self-guided tour, designed to showcase native plants in approximately 30 gardens of myriad sizes across the Sacramento area. Free, reserve a spot via EventBrite here. The tour brochure and information will be provided and made available to registrants the week before the tour. (Tip: It's impossible to see all the gardens in one day, so when the map is released, plan a driving route. I like to choose a neighborhood I haven't explored before. And don't be afraid to ask questions about the plants and the gardener's choices.)
Sunday, May 4:
-- Colonial Heights Garden Tour. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Presented by the Colonial Heights Neighborhood Association. Several neighborhood gardens will be open to visit. Colonial Park, at 19th Avenue and 53rd Street, will host food and coffee vendors, plant vendors, and a plant/seed swap. Tickets $7 online or $5 day of event. Information here.
-- Pence Gallery Garden Tour. Noon to 5 p.m. The nonprofit art gallery in downtown Davis presents a Sunday self-guided tour featuring six private gardens in the university town. As befitting its sponsor and beneficiary, the tour features artists painting in each of the featured gardens. Yolo master gardeners also will be on hand to answer gardening questions. At the Pence itself will be art exhibits, a snack bag (limited supply) and a 2 p.m. tour by the gallery director. Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for non-members, and $35 day of event. They go on sale April 4. Information here.
Saturday and Sunday, May 10-11
-- East Sacramento Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This long-running fundraiser for David Lubin Elementary School this year features six gardens in East Sacramento, $25. Ages under 12 free. A boutique and cafe at the school is open to the public, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. An additional event is a wine garden, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Sutter Lawn Tennis Club (separate $20 ticket required). Tickets and information available at https://www.eastsacgardentour.com/.
Sunday, May 11
-- Mother's Day Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., presented by the Placer County master gardeners. Six gardens in Auburn are featured this year. $20; children under 12 admitted free. Tickets will be sold at Green Acres in Auburn, Rocklin, and Roseville, also online, starting April 25. Information here.
Saturday, May 17:
-- Tahoe Park Garden Tour, gardens and artists and more, neighborhood of 8th Avenue and 60th Street, Sacramento, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets $10 to $12 (online map vs. printed program). Tickets and information here.
Also of note:
CNPS Ambassador Patricia Carpenter typically opens her garden for a Late Spring Ramble on a Sunday in later May. The tour is free but requires registration; signups are not yet available.
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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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