Community Garden hosts free composting workshop
Kitchen waste is the basis of free "garden gold" -- compost! Use as an amendment or a mulch, and your soil will benefit. Photo courtesy City of Elk Grove and Republic Services
Here's a great deal for Elk Grove residents: Turn kitchen waste into a rich soil amendment for your garden. Make your own compost and improve your soil, too.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, learn how to make “garden gold” with a compost workshop offered by the City of Elk Grove and Republic Services.
Free for Elk Grove residents, this hands-on demonstration will be held at Elk Grove Community Garden, 10025 Hampton Oak Drive, Elk Grove.
Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/elk-grove-compost-workshop-tickets-691058493557.
The one-hour workshop will cover the basics of composting, how to mix “greens” (fresh material) with “browns” (dried material) for faster results, plus what to do with the compost when it’s ready. Not only will you be recycling organic waste (banana peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc.), you’ll be saving money: Soil amendment is expensive!
For more on organic recycling in Elk Grove: https://www.elkgrovecity.org/recycling-and-waste/organic-recycling.
Not an Elk Grove resident? Check out the free Compost and Mulch workshop scheduled by the City of Roseville, 10 a.m. Sept. 23. Registration information is here.
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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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