New! Shrimp pot pie with fresh peas, carrots and spring onions
June starts with blast of summer heat (and warm nights)
Daily gardening blog reaches its sixth anniversary -- thanks to our readers!
Two-hour class Saturday at Community Garden and Learning Center
'Blind shoots' are the result of spring temperature fluctuations
Placer County master gardeners welcome public to experience their growing resource, now in spring bloom
Learn about all things lavender including how to make it thrive
New! Ricotta the secret ingredient to these baked treats
Plant now as month of May ends with warming trend .
Be prepared for quick fixes and managing garden info
Rain totals add up to something rare for area
Yolo County master gardeners offer free workshop via Zoom.
El Dorado County master gardeners offer advice for growing vegetables, fruit, flowers and more at higher elevations.
Memorial Day Weekend event features thousands of plants on sale at Elk Grove nursery
New! Savory cherry sauce with sweet onions goes great with pork, chicken
Get ready for warm, sunny and breezy days ahead
Layer of wood chips, straw or leaves helps plants cope with summer temperatures
Free event Sunday includes plant sale, botanist's visit
Local clubs offer lots of garden gear plus much more at huge yard sale
Sacramento neighborhood hosts garden tour, plant sale
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.