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Sac Digs Gardening celebrates three years

Thank you, readers, for helping us grow!

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 1, 2021

Easter lilies bloom in late May when planted in the ground in Sacramento. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Happy birthday to us!

Today, Sacramento Digs Gardening turns 3 years old. We’ve published at least one post every day since June 1, 2018. This post is No. 1,106.

That’s a startling number – particularly for us content creators. Who knew there could be that much local gardening news?

But Kathy Morrison and I suspected as much when we set out on this pursuit. And that’s why we started Sacramento Digs Gardening – to provide up-to-date, local gardening news that local gardeners could use.

Because all good gardening is local.

When we launched Sac Digs Gardening, there was a sudden vacuum in local gardening information due to traditional-media cutbacks. This blog could be a lifeline to local readers for garden news and usable information about what they were experiencing in their own gardens. So, we started writing and posting.

Most of those posts started with observation. What did we see happening in our own gardens? What did it mean? Were other gardeners experiencing the same thing? Observation leads to inspiration. If we wondered why, likely other local gardeners would wonder, also.

Today’s photo is an example. It’s an Easter lily, blooming on Memorial Day weekend. Why? Because that’s when Easter lilies planted in the ground in Sacramento should bloom. (“Forcing” makes them bloom in time for Easter.) It also demonstrates that gift bulbs will rebloom outdoors.

(This particular lily also struck me as appropriate for this third birthday salute: Three blooms are fully open with another on the way, just as we have another post always coming.)

One story led to another and here we are, three years later.

Every one of those 1,106 stories is original, local and all about gardening from a Sacramento perspective. In our first summer, we broadened our scope to include weekly recipes featuring seasonal produce because one of the biggest joys of gardening is making the most of the harvest.

There have been challenges (especially a few technical glitches). Sac Digs Gardening survived the pandemic and helped many newbie gardeners get growing.

Now, the blog has more than 1,800 Facebook Followers. Hundreds of readers receive the nightly e-newsletter directly in their inboxes. (More are always welcome!)

After three years, we’ve built quite a body of work; it’s a reliable and ready resource for anyone to search.

Currently, we’re in the process of refining our website. Soon, we’ll be switching to a more reliable newsletter delivery program.

We also plan to introduce sponsorship possibilities, a donation button and other ways readers can support Sac Digs Gardening, so we can keep this two-woman effort going.

Our question: What do you want to read about?

Tell us what gardening-related topics you’d like us to explore or cover more. Email me directly at debarrington17@gmail.com .

Most of all, we’d like to thank the Sacramento gardening community and our readers for their support! If we didn’t have readers, we would have stopped a long time ago. You keep us writing, posting and sharing.

Sac Digs Gardening exists because Sacramento really does dig gardening. We’re looking forward to growing more in the year ahead.

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Garden Checklist for week of May 5

Survey your garden after the May 4 rainstorm. Heavy rain and gusty winds can break the neck of large flowers such as roses. Also:

* Keep an eye on new transplants or seedlings; they could take a pounding from the rain.

* Watch out for powdery mildew. Warmth following moist conditions can cause this fungal disease to “bloom,” too. If you see a leaf that looks like it’s dusted with powdered sugar, snip it off.

* After the storm, start setting out tomato transplants, but wait on the peppers and eggplants (they want warmer nights). Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* 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.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* 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.

* Don’t wait; plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

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