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Lifetime Master Gardener Fred Hoffman is the host of the "KFBK Garden Show"
on NewsTalk 1530 KFBK in Sacramento, California each Sunday morning from
8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by "Get Growing" on Talk 650 KSTE
in Sacramento, 10 a.m. to Noon.
And, you can listen to the shows, live, via the KFBK.com and KSTE.com websites.
Now available as podcasts: previous editions of "The KFBK Garden Show"
and "Get Growing".
Each week on the "KFBK Garden Show" and "Get Growing, "Farmer Fred",
an award-winning member of the California Association of Nurseries and
Garden Centers, interviews garden experts from throughout Northern
and Central California, tackles your gardening questions and problems,
and offers prizes for answers to the weekly "Garden Grappler".
Southern Sacramento and Northern San Joaquin County gardeners can also
get current gardening information from Fred in his Saturday gardening column
in the Lodi News-Sentinel.; also available at the Farmer Fred Rant! Blog page.
Sign Up for
Daily Garden Bulletins (and Single Malt Scotch
suggestions) from Farmer
Fred on Twitter!
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The Latest
Posts at the Farmer
Fred Rant! Blog
page:
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UPCOMING
GUESTS ON THE "KFBK GARDEN SHOW" & "GET
GROWING"
Heard each Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to
Noon:
Jan. 31: Dave
Rhodes,
Rhodes Landscape
Design: "Planning Your
Garden with Less Water Use in Mind"; Landscape
Designer Roberta
Walker: "The Rain
Garden"; Sac. Co. Master Gardener Shannon
Gordon: "Fair
Oaks Horticulture Center Events"
Feb. 7: Nicolai
Laquaglia,
Sacramento County Master Gardener:
"All About Composting
Systems"; Trey Pitzenberger-The
Golden Gecko Garden
Center: "Seed Starting
Tips"
Feb. 14: Steve
Zien,
Living Resources Co.:
"Getting the Organic Garden Ready for
Planting"
Feb. 21: Debbie
Flower,
American River College Horticulture Dept.
"Late Winter Garden
Ideas"; Warren
Roberts- UC
Davis
Arboretum.
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Garden Data (thru Feb. 4,
2010)
Avg. evapotranspiration rate this past week :
0.32" valley; 0.35" foothills.
Soil Temperature: 50 (F) valley. 49 (F) foothills.
44 (F) upper foothills.
Click Here for more
Information about soil temperature and evapotranspiration
rates
Chilling
hours (Nov. 1, 2009 - Feb. 4, 2010): hours at
45 degrees or less, for deciduous fruit tree production,
Chill Season: Nov. 1- Feb. 28)
VALLEY: 647-842 hours
FOOTHILLS: 862-1093 hours
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Looking for lists and pictures of
plants that don't require much water?
Check out the
website...
Water-Wise
Gardening in the Gold Country Region
This is a project undertaken in conjunction
with the municipalities and water districts in three
counties: Sacramento,
El Dorado and Placer as well as local
horticulturists. The website has a wealth of local
residential photography and plant
information to help the homeowner improve
their garden in a water efficient way.
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GARDEN EVENTS
The Sacramento County Master Gardener
Calendar Is Now Available for purchase
on-line!
• The Gardening Guide is written specifically
for the Sacramento area, not "Northern California" or the
Bay area, covering 12 months, from January 2010 through
December 2010.
• The Gardening Guide suggests what to do in
the garden each month, including what to plant, watering
information, maintenance tasks, and dealing with pests and
diseases, based on University of California-approved
information.
• The calendar pages have space to write
appointments and can be used as a journal to record
gardening activities (like what, when and where the user has
planted something, or when the aphids arrive in the
spring).
Click
Here for the Details!
Friday, February
5
Folk Music Jam
Session
12:00&endash;1:00 pm, Wyatt Deck,
Old Davis Road, UC Davis
Folk
musicians are invited to play together informally during an
acoustic jam session on Friday, February 5, noon to 1:00
p.m. at the Wyatt Deck, located on Old Davis Road next to
the redwood grove in the UC Davis Arboretum. Pull out your
fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes,
squeezeboxes (you name it) and join your fellow musicians
for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer,
and world music over the lunch hour. All skill levels
welcome. Listeners welcome! Parking is available for $6 in
Visitor Lot 5, at Old Davis Road and A Street. For more
information, please call (530) 752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.
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Saturday, February
6
Guided Tour: Birds that Winter in
the Arboretum
11:00 a.m., Arboretum Headquarters,
LaRue Road, UC Davis
Learn
about bird-friendly gardening and what plants attract birds
during a free public tour of the UC Davis Arboretum on
Saturday, February 6. Enjoy a slide show highlighting birds
you might see in winter in the Arboretum. Then, weather
permitting, take a stroll with the docent to look for birds
in the garden. The tour will meet at 11:00 a.m. at Arboretum
Headquarters, on LaRue Road on the UC Davis campus. There is
no charge for the tour, and free parking is
available in Visitor Lot 47. For more information,
please call (530) 752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.
===============================
Saturday, February
13
Guided Tour: Beauty in the Dead of
Winter
11:00 a.m., Buehler Alumni &
Visitors Center, Old Davis Road, UC Davis
Does
the landscape around you seem dead in midwinter? Take
another look on a walk through the Mary Wattis Brown Garden
of California Native Plants at the UC Davis Arboretum on
Saturday, February 13. Enjoy the visual impact of old valley
oaks, the bark texture of Santa Cruz Island ironwood, the
scent of a ponderosa pine. Bring a camera to capture
reminders of what to plant in the spring for next winter's
enjoyment. Hot cider and popcorn will finish the morning.
The tour will meet at 11:00 a.m. at the Buehler Alumni &
Visitors Center, across from the Mondavi Center on Old Davis
Road on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for the
tour, and free parking is available in Visitor Lot 1 and the
parking garage south of the Mondavi Center. For more
information, please call (530) 752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.
===============================
Friday, February
19
Folk Music Jam
Session
12:00&endash;1:00 pm, Wyatt Deck,
Old Davis Road, UC Davis
Folk
musicians are invited to play together informally during an
acoustic jam session on Friday, February 19, noon to 1:00
p.m. at the Wyatt Deck, located on Old Davis Road next to
the redwood grove in the UC Davis Arboretum. Pull out your
fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes,
squeezeboxes (you name it) and join your fellow musicians
for a little bluegrass, old-time, blues, Celtic, klezmer,
and world music over the lunch hour. All skill levels
welcome. Listeners welcome! Parking is available for $6 in
Visitor Lot 5, at Old Davis Road and A Street. For more
information, please call (530) 752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.
===============================
Saturday, February
20
Guided Tour: Acacia
Encounters
11:00 a.m., Putah Creek Lodge,
Putah Creek Lodge Road, UC Davis
Acacias
are popular with gardeners for their masses of yellow or
gold flowers and sweet scent. The Eric E. Conn Acacia
Grove in the UC Davis Arboretum displays over 50
species of acacias from Australia, Africa, and the
Americas, in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, textures,
and hues. Enjoy a free public tour of the acacia collection
in the Arboretum on Saturday, February 20, at 11:00
a.m. The tour will leave from Putah Creek Lodge,
on Putah Creek Lodge Road, off LaRue Road on the UC Davis
campus. Free parking is available at the
Lodge. For more information, please call (530)
752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.
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Saturday, February 27,
2010
Event: Calaveras Master
Gardeners Open Garden Day
Time: 10 am to 2
pm
Place: Demonstration Garden,
891 Mountain Ranch Rd., San Andreas, CA
Cost: Free
Call: 209-754-6477 or
209-728-0106
Details: Garden opens to the
public at 10 am. Two presentations will be offered
during the day - "Bareroot Gardening" and "Planting from
Seed". At 10:30 a.m. Master Gardeners will discuss the
advantages of bareroot planting and demonstrate by actually
planting a bareroot tree. The second presentation, at
11:15 a.m., will have a Master Gardener demonstrating the
best conditions for starting plants from seed. While
the garden is open Master Gardeners will be available to
answer general gardening questions and plants will be
available for sale. Event will be held RAIN or
SHINE.
====================================
Sunday, February
28
Native Californian Elderberry
Flute-Making Workshop
1:00-3:00 p.m., Room 146
Environmental Horticulture, Old Davis Road, UC
Davis
People
of all ages are invited to learn how to make and play a
Native Californian elderberry flute in a free two-hour
workshop at the UC Davis Arboretum on Sunday, February 28.
East Bay Regional Parks docent Antonio Flores will talk
about the culture of flute-making and also about the
endangered elderberry beetle. All materials will be
supplied. Please bring a sharpened pocket knife. Adults will
need to supervise their young children. The workshop will
take place from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in Room 146 of the
Environmental Horticulture complex, on the south side of Old
Davis Road on the UC Davis campus. There is no charge for
the workshop, and free parking is available in Visitor Lot
5, at Old Davis Road and A Street. For more information,
please call (530) 752-4880 or
visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu
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The Complete List of Garden Writers Association Media Award Winners for 2009
===============================================================================================
HOW
TO HIRE AN ARBORIST
information
from the Sacramento Tree
Foundation
Improper pruning can
cause irreparable damage to your tree and may end up costing
you a considerable amount of time and money. Hire a
Certified Arborist as if your tree's life depends on
it!
An Arborist is a
specialist in the care of individual trees. Arborists are
knowledgeable about routine needs of trees, and are trained
and equipped to provide proper diagnostic and remedial
measures as well.
After certification
with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), each
Arborist is assigned a number, which is retained throughout
the professional life of an Arborist. It is the right of
those hiring an Arborist to ask for this number, and to
check
the status of that Arborist with the
ISA.
Hire someone who is
licensed, bonded and insured. Examine these credentials and
feel free to check with the appropriate agencies to verify
the validity of the credentials.
Remember that almost
anybody can obtain a business license, and that this alone
is no guarantee of quality.
Do ask for references
and take the time to check them out.
Get more than one bid
and examine the written specifications of the
bids.
If you are not
familiar with the terminology used, ask for clarification.
Ask questions!
Take your time and
select a company that is reputable. Determine the best
combination of price, work to be done, skill and
professionalism to protect your investment.
Membership in
professional organizations demonstrates a willingness on the
part of the Arborist to stay abreast of Arboricultural
information. It is not however, a guarantee of satisfied
work. Check references.
Remember that improper
tree care can take many years to correct itself. If pruning
is too severe, it may never be corrected.
Beware of anyone
that recommends topping a tree. A reliable Arborist will
try to talk you out of topping a tree if it is requested.
Never allow a climber to use spikes or spurs to climb your
tree unless the tree is scheduled for
removal.
Note: It is the policy
of the Sacramento Tree Foundation to not endorse private
arborists, tree service companies or consultants. Many fine
tree care companies exist in the Sacramento area. It is
recommended that you obtain several quotes, check the
professional status of individuals or firms with the ISA,
check references, and request evidence of insurance from
each company you consider.
Make pruning cuts
outside of the branch collar. No flush
cuts.
To prevent large
branches to be pruned from tearing the tree bark below it,
use the three-cut method for removing large branches. The
first cut is from the bottom, going up less than halfway.
The second cut is outside of the first cut, from top to
bottom. The third cut cleans up the remaining stump, but is
made outside the branch collar.
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