What a bargain: Master gardeners' 2021 Gardening Guide and Calendar

Is there anything that says Sacramento more
than a big, leafy, shady tree? (Calendar images
courtesy Jan Geier Fetler and Laura
Cerles-Rogers, UCCE master gardeners)

Still just $10, the publication this year focuses on trees

By Kathy Morrison

The final freeze of winter. The date I last fertilized the orange tree. The week it was so windy. The celebration of the first ripe tomato.

I always think I'll remember the dates, but of course I don't. What I do remember, now, is to write those gardening and weather events on the pages of my invaluable Gardening Guide and Calendar.

The UCCE Sacramento County master gardeners print this gem of a publication every year as a fundraiser, just in time for sales to start at Harvest Day. That event was online this year, of course, and so are the sales of the Gardening Guide. It can be ordered here, using a credit card, or shoppers can print out and mail in the order form with a check.  All calendars will be mailed; a free package of poppy seeds is included with each order, while they last.

The 2021 theme is Trees, and the large vertical-format calendar features a beautiful photo of an appropriate tree each month. For example, January's is the 'Yosemite Gold' semi-dwarf mandarin, laden with ripe fruit, and March's tree (see image below) is the Western redbud, a California native with very low water requirements.

Each month also is filled with gardening tips and reminders for that time of year. Planting charts and other useful information pack the back of the calendar. It's like have a master gardener right there at your desk. There's also plenty of room for scribbling notes, thank goodness. 

Buy a couple of Gardening Guides now and give them as gifts; I can't think of any Sacramento-area gardener who wouldn't love to have one.

This is the March tree and tips page from the Gardening Guide