The gardening year gets off to a fast start
The first Open Garden of 2024 at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center will be Jan. 20. Visitors in January 2022, above, check out the vegetable garden. Kathy Morrison
Welcome to winter, officially! Today, Dec. 21, is the winter solstice, the day with the least amount of daylight. Which means -- hurray! -- that we'll have gradually longer days from here until June 21.
And that, my friends, is prime gardening time.
So get out your 2024 Gardening Guide & Calendar -- Sacramento or Placer editions, still available if you need one -- and start marking down these key dates. The Sacramento Digs Gardening Calendar, visible on our home page and in our newsletter, will try to keep up with additional event dates as we learn them, plus times and other pertinent details. Follow the links below for more details.
Sacrameto County master gardeners:
-- Open Garden Days, Fair Oaks Horticulture Center: Jan. 20, Feb. 10, March 16, April 17, May 11, June 6, June 15, Sept. 14, Oct. 16.
-- Harvest Day at FOHC, Aug. 3.
-- Worm Composting class, March 23
Placer County master gardeners:
-- A full slate of free classes and workshops, starting with "Seed Saving Flowers and Vegetables," Jan. 13, and "Designing Water-wise Gardens" on Jan. 20. Blueberries (Feb. 10), compost and mulch (Feb. 17), straw bale gardening (March 9) and "Tomato Mastery" (March 16) will be the remaining winter topics. The spring presentations will start with "Planning Your Summer Vegetable Garden" on April 13.
El Dorado County master gardeners:
-- First Saturday Garden Tours, Sherwood Demonstration Garden, Placerville. Jan. 6, Feb. 3, March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1, July 6, Aug. 3, Sept. 7, Oct. 5, Nov. 2, Dec. 7
-- Presentations and classes (all free) begin with "Gardening for the Future" on Jan. 10, followed by "Vegetable Gardening" on Jan. 13. "Grow Your Own Flower Cutting Garden" is scheduled Feb. 10, as is "Rose Pruning and Care" (different locations). Celebrate Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, by learning about "Gardening in Small Spaces." "Starting Plants from Seed" is set March 2, along with "Kids! Grow and Show Your Plant at the Fair." Several presentations also are set for the remainder of March and through June.
Other events (with more due to be scheduled soon):
-- McKinley Park Rose Garden pruning days: Jan. 6, 13, 17, 20 and 27 plus Feb. 10 and 17. See Debbie's post on that here.
-- Sacramento Seed Swap and Share, afternoon of Jan. 27 at the Fair Oaks Library.
-- City of Roseville workshops (which are free but often fill up) include "Pruning With Purpose" on Jan. 13, Feb. 7 and March 9 (three separate sessions), "Growing Fruit Trees" on Jan. 27 and "Compost and Mulch" Feb. 17. "Pruning Fruit Trees" will be held Feb. 22.
-- Northern California Home & Landscape Expo runs Feb. 2-4 at Cal Expo. This event is primarily aimed at home improvement and outdoor landscaping, but the Sacramento County master gardeners will staff a booth at the event all three days. That makes it a great opportunity to get gardening advice early in the year or ask questions about ongoing garden issues or problems.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
SUMMER
July 15: Does this plant need water?
July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions
July 1: How to grow summer salad greens
June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal
SPRING
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
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
WINTER
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 July 13
Put off big chores and planting until later in the week when the weather is cooler. In the meantime, remember to stay hydrated – advice for both you and your garden.
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
* Water, then fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom.
* Give vegetable plants bone meal or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting.
* Add some summer color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.
* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers. Plant Halloween pumpkins now.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.
* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.
* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.
* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.
Contact Us
Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com
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