UC Sacramento County Master Gardeners

10/05/2026

October Vegetable Garden Activities and Tips:

It's not too late to start your winter vegetable garden! Do you enjoy colorful salads, broccoli, cauliflower, chard and more? There are plenty of leafy greens and other cool-season vegetable plants at garden stores now. Lettuce and red mustard shown here grow fast in warm fall soil giving you plenty of salads before winter comes.

If you are new to food gardening, you'll find a winter garden has fewer pests, and rain does the irrigation. Try it! Look at the October column of our Sacramento Vegetable Planting Schedule to see what to plant now.. Plant what you'll love to eat from fall through spring.

Please refer to our website for further information.

(Image credit: UC Regents UC Sacramento County Master Gardener website)

10/05/2026

Happy October fellow gardeners and Halloween lovers!

10/03/2026

University of California Integrated Pest Management (UC IPM) offers a tremendous number of resources on their webpage, including a "What's your pest problem?" search feature.

From the website...

"What is IPM?

IPM is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines, and treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organism. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment."

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/ .tab=0

10/02/2026

HAPPY DESIGN DAY FRIYAY

Today's topic: the world is beautiful🌏 ...but gardening is local! 🌸

You know that feeling when you're away from home for a while, and when you come back everything feels different, more beautiful than you remembered, and it just feels... right?

As though your travels have given you a new perspective, new eyes through which to see your home. For a little while after you get back, it almost feels like you're a visitor to a place that was perfectly designed for you, and everything you love and care about and enjoy is there: all of your favorite people and books and plants!

When we travel, it's so fun to notice the different types of trees and flowers and gardening styles (and even tree-staking techniques, for the plant nerds like myself) that other places have. To explore their gardens and to appreciate the beauty and the differences that we see.

But when it comes to garden advice, to which seeds and which time of year and which side of the house to put something, how much water to use and how to solve such-and-such problem, the advice that we give as Master Gardeners is ✨️local✨️.

Because every place is different! That's the beauty of the world. And that means that our home is different than other places, and requires specialized information and knowledge and techniques that may or may not apply to other places, just as what might work in Alaska might not work in Sacramento.

That's why whenever someone contacts us with a garden question, we first make sure that they are in our area, and that our advice (backed by University of California research) applies to them.

No matter where you get your gardening information from, Master Gardeners like us, or your favorite blog, or plant-tok, it's important to make sure that their advice applies to you and your area.

And if you ever have a garden question and are in our area, we are here to help! ❤️

Cato M. Heskett, PLA
UC MG: Sacramento
Image: Ireland plane aerial, 2026, CMH

*no AI was used in writing or editing this post

10/01/2026

Calscape has just released its Pollinator Hub! This outstanding resource provides information about native pollinators and the native plants that support them.

https://calscape.org/why-pollinators/

Why do native plants matter?

Native plants are essential to our native pollinator populations. Many plant and pollinator species have co-evolved over thousands of years and may be dependent upon one another for survival - like the well-known monarch butterfly caterpillar and native milkweed relationship. Many species like the monarch have specialized diets and cannot substitute with nonnative plant species. Native plants are also up to four times more attractive to native pollinators and frequently provide the necessary nutrients at the time those nutrients are required by the life cycle of the pollinator.

Even the smallest additions of native plants preferred or required by native pollinators can help to support them & our gardens.

Pollinators keep our landscapes blooming and our food growing — yet they’re declining fast from habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change. Wherever you live, your everyday life depends on them.

09/30/2026

Fall is here, and so are fall pests. 🍂

The UC IPM Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklist has a few simple ways to protect your garden this September:

🍋 Check citrus for Asian citrus psyllid and leafminers
💧 Adjust irrigation as the weather and your plants' water needs change
🌱 Avoid overwatering and improve drainage to prevent root rot
🌼 Plant California natives suited to your site
✂️ Prune evergreen, summer-flowering shrubs
🍎 Clean up fallen fruit, nuts and mummies so they don't attract pests
🍁 Add fallen leaves to your compost, then turn it and keep it moist

Get the full list of tips from UC IPM's Yulie Velez: https://ucanr.edu/blog/pests-urban-landscape/article/september-pest-management-tips



Photo credit: UC Regents
Photo description: Native California Poppies surrounding a rock with trees and blue sky in the background

09/30/2026

Stories from the Garden: the Marigold Fruit Fly!

Moving quickly, Sheila made her way into the center of the marigold. Her wing patterns had momentarily confused that jumping spider, but it likely would not be fooled for long, and she wanted to lay some eggs before it attacked. These florets were in pristine condition - they would make nutritious seeds to feed her children when they hatched.

-the reflections of Sheila, a marigold fruit fly (Trupanea vicina), or closely related
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Photo and story by Kimberly Steinmann, Master Gardener

Note: Trupanea flies are in the fruit fly family Tephritidae, although they differ from other fruit flies in that they tend to feed on seeds rather than fruit. Trupanea larvae develop in the flower heads of plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), where they feed on developing seeds. Adult flies feed on nectar and plant juices, assisting in pollination. Some species have striking patterns on their wings, which may help confuse predators such as ants and spiders. One hypothesis is that these markings interfere with a predator's ability to recognize or track the fly, although their protective function is not fully understood. Although some Trupanea species such as T. vinca have caused losses in commercial marigold production, they are not generally considered major garden pests.

09/28/2026

Fall is a great time to add plants to your garden. Watch this informational video that tells you how to successfully add new nursery transplants.

Give your new nursery plants a healthy start with transplanting tip...

09/26/2026

We are often asked when the next Master Gardener (MG) training will be scheduled. There is no schedule for the next training at this time, but we encourage all people interested in joining the MG program to review our MG training webpage to learn more about the process.

https://www.ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardeners-sacramento-county/master-gardener-training

09/25/2026

A Contemplative Design Day Friyay

We, the UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County, are trained volunteers who provide University of California approved research-based horticulture information to home gardeners of our county through our website, in person events, our page, our youtube channel, our fundraising initiatives, and the collective thousands of hours we all put in every year for our community.

We do this because we love our community, we love interacting with and educating the public, because we are passionate about nature and gardening, and because it's just plain fun to spend time doing something that matters to us.

Recent facebook changes have made it so that we can't share more than two links a month with you all. That means that we can't post more than once with links to the events that we host, to the resources that we have to share, to volunteer opportunities, or even link to give credit to the articles and pictures that we share.

Facebook, aka Meta, is a two trillion dollar company. We and the tens of thousands of other groups that use facebook to connect with our communities... are not. And Facebook is demanding more money from us in order to be able to post more than two links a month.

So if you've noticed the lack of links and the inability for us to share more resources, this is why. I don't even know if you'll see this post or if it will get flagged and taken down by facebook. But I wanted to let you know what has happened and why different nonprofit pages and community pages that you follow might be looking different nowadays, including ours.

As long as we're able, we will do our best to continue reaching you, our community, and sharing resources and education and humor. Thank you for being part of the magic we've made here!

(And if you know Mark, maybe let him know how this new change is negatively impacting volunteer organizations like us?)

Thank you,

Cato Heskett, PLA
Master Gardener Class 2025

Image credit: Cato Heskett, 2026