This pretty calendar is more than a calendar

This is prime season for calendar purchases — great for planning the year ahead, even better for holiday gifts.

The UC master gardeners of Placer County have put together a calendar that does much more than tell you the month and date. Their Gardening Guide and Calendar is packed with gardening tips, reminders and planting inspiration.

This 2025 version also explores the many ways that gardening keeps us healthy, from the physical activity to the mental benefit of working with the natural world. Specific topics include creating healthy compost, growing blueberries,  the benefits of a garden of native plants, and much more.

“This calendar is suitable for climate zones from California’s Central Valley to the foothills,” the master gardeners note. The guidelines can be modified for colder or more moderate climates, they say.  Cost is $12, or 5 for $55, a bulk discount.

How to find this invaluable calendar? In-person sales are offered this Sunday, Nov.17, at the Fowler Ranch Farmers Market in Lincoln, and next week during the Mountain Mandarin Festival, Nov. 22-24, held this year in Roseville’s @theGrounds. (More on the festival will be on the blog soon.)

Shoppers also can order the publication online or via mail order; go to the Placer website for those forms.

Finally, a host of Placer retailers, including nurseries and hardware stores, carry the calendar for sale; prices maybe higher there. (There also are a few shops in El Dorado County that are selling it.) The list is linked off the website above.

For additional information on the Placer master gardeners’ activities, go to https://pcmg.ucanr.edu/