Triple-digit temperatures can affect pollination, tomato development
Ideas for gardeners to revel in the long days and cool nights
Make a container garden to celebrate July Fourth
Shepard Center showcases art of Japanese flower arranging
Amador Flower Farm hosts annual Daylily Days with tram tours and barbecue
Recipe: Fresh raspberry fool with a rosy twist
Red Flag Warning signals dry conditions, high fire danger
Placer County master gardeners show how to attract more beneficial insects, birds and bats (yes, bats) to your landscape.
Green Acres presents a free talk on ‘pollinator buffets’ Saturday
Sacramento County master gardeners invite public to watch and learn at free event.
After successful fight against Oriental fruit fly, Sacramento County now battles Japanese beetles, which were discovered in Carmichael.
Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society hosts 54th annual show and sale at Shepard Center.
New! Late-spring combination works for summer cookouts, too
Be ready for more triple-digit heat (but it won’t last).
Green Acres' irrigation experts show how to put right plants in the right place for water-wise success.
Placer County master gardeners offer free water-wise workshop at new Loomis Library demonstration garden.
Classic car meetup, Food Truck Mania also Thursday in Fair Oaks Park
Preservation group propagates rose varieties found, in some cases, nowhere else
Sacramento textile artists host colorful array at Shepard Center
New! Shrimp pot pie with fresh peas, carrots and spring onions
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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.
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