Sacramento, Placer master gardeners stuff these guides with useful information
Great minds think alike! The two gardening guides both have 2024 covers with bees and native flowering plants. But the content is different -- and tailored for each growing area. Kathy Morrison
We have just one month until the 2024 gardening season begins. And there's even less time to shop for holiday gifts for gardener friends and relatives.
Here's my best suggestion to cover both situations: Get yourself -- and those gardening gift recipients -- a 2024 Gardening Guide and Calendar. Both the Sacramento and Placer counties' master gardener groups produce stunning and incredibly useful versions, tailored to the gardens in our region. (Full disclosure: I'm one of the contributing writers to the Sacramento version.)
The price is right, just $12 each including sales tax, and available online or at area nurseries/retail outlets. Sacramento's can be ordered here; the retail sellers are listed on the same page. Placer's order page is here, which also includes a link to the retailers carrying it in Placer, Nevada and El Dorado counties.
Prices for calendars purchased at retailers may be slightly higher; online orders include postage costs.
Both gardening guides are fundraisers to support these busy master gardener programs, which rely tremendously on volunteers and donations.
If you want to order online, I would hurry and do it before Dec. 8. I've heard though the grapevine that UC Agriculture and Natural Resources -- the UC Cooperative Extension's umbrella department -- will be moving its servers to a new data center Dec. 8-10, so the websites will be down for that period.
So what's in these calendars? The Sacramento guide for 2024 focuses on "Habitat Gardening, " with calendar pages devoted to plants that benefit wildlife. January, for example, focuses on native oaks, a "keystone species" for California birds, butterflies and other insects. Behind the calendar pages is essentially a mini course on habitat gardening, discussing plant families, beneficials, local habitats to visit and bird-friendly practices. The Sacramento month-by-month planting chart is a standard part of the annual guide.
The Placer master gardeners in their Valley- and foothills-tailored guide suggest "Try Something New." February's article, for example, looks at "Redefining Your Garden," perfect for the time of year when planning rather than planting is a gardener's primary activity. April's page discusses "Succulents in Small Spaces," certainly a great topic for folks with limited growing space.
Both guides are like having a master gardener in your back pocket, plus an at-your-fingertips place to record weather notes, monthly reminders and quarterly garden duties. (Sprayed your peach trees yet?) I really couldn't garden without mine!
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 19
Dress warmly in layers – and get to work:
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees 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 oil 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.
* 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. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback if pruned now. Save those until summer.)
* 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.
* 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, ranunculus and gladioli 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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