Save the date: Aug. 2 is Harvest Day

July and summer events are just getting under way, but it’s time to plan for Harvest Day. The UC Sacramento County master gardeners have been planning for it since February, after all.

Saturday, Aug. 2, is the date this year for the master gardeners’ big summer event, to be held at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Harvest Day is a free one-day celebration of all things gardening. It includes speakers, demonstrations, vendors, education tables, calendar sales and much more.

Highlights of Harvest Day include three keynote speakers under the big tent.  This year there are actually four, and they and their topics are:

— Rose Loveall-Sale and Karey Windbiel-Rojas, 8:15 a.m., on “Looking to the Future: Plant Choice for a Changing Climate.” Loveall-Sale is the owner of Morningsun Herb Farm in Solano County, and Windbiel-Rojas is the associate director for Urban and Community IPM and area urban IPM adviser with the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program.

— Katie Low, 9:45 a.m., “Community Wildfire Preparedness Fundamentals.” Low is the statewide coordinator for the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Fire Network.

— Quentyn Young,  11 a.m., “Growing Avocados and Subtropical Fruit Trees in the Sacramento Area.” Young is a Sacramento master gardener, a garden designer and co-project leader of the Horticulture Center’s orchard, plus runs his own landscape consulting and specialized pruning business.

Harvest Day also will feature 20-minute mini talks by master gardeners throughout the day. Topics range from pruning caneberries to using groundcovers as lawn alternatives.

The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is at 11549 Fair Oaks Blvd., just south of the Fair Oaks Library and Madison Avenue.

For more on Harvest Day, go to https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-master-gardeners-sacramento-county/harvest-day