Bring questions for master gardeners during morning event
Find inspiration (and shade) at the Water Efficient Landscape of the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. This area is open during regular park hours; the rest of the FOHC will be open as well especially for Open Garden on Saturday. Kathy Morrison
Sure, you've got gardening questions -- what gardener doesn't this time of year?
Why are the tomatoes dropping flowers? How to protect the grapes or the blueberries from critters? When's the best time to harvest lavender? How to know when compost is done? What kind of plant thrives in full, hot sun? Why didn't the peach tree produce any fruit this year?
Find answers to these and other questions when the Sacramento County master gardeners present their final Open Garden Day of spring this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The informal event at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is free and open to the public. All areas of the FOHC will be open and staffed by master gardeners, who enjoy helping gardeners with tips and solutions to gardening dilemmas. The Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., south of the Fair Oaks Library.
The next event at the Horticulture Center will be Harvest Day, the master gardeners' big celebration of summer, with speakers, vendors and special presentations. Mark the calendar -- it'll be on Saturday, Aug. 5. Open Garden events will resume in September and October.
The master gardeners also will be back at the State Fair in July, daily staffing their booth in The Farm and fielding all sorts of summer gardening questions.
And a personal shoutout here to the new master gardener Class of 2023, which will celebrate its graduation this Saturday as well. The 24 newly minted MGs are a welcome addition to the busy Sacramento County group. Congrats all!
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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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