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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Jan. 2

Make the most of dry days; it's time to prune!

Ripening kumquats
Kumquats are the most cold-hardy citrus. This Nagami kumquat tree only needs protection below 24 degrees, according to Four Winds Growers. Limes and lemons,  by contrast, should be protected below 32 degrees; harvest ripe fruit before it's damaged. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)



Happy New Year and, water-wise, we have reasons to celebrate.

According to the National Weather Service, California has received more rain and snow – 33.9 trillion gallons total – since Oct. 1 than we did all of the 2020-21 water year.

The Sierra snowpack is healthy, too. On Saturday, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported a record December snowfall: 214 inches.

Sacramento starts the new year cold and frosty. Widespread frost is predicted Saturday and Sunday nights; take precautions to protect tender plants. Pick ripe citrus.

Possible rain could materialize again Tuesday and Friday, says the weather service. Otherwise, days will be in the low 50s and overnight lows around 40 – otherwise pretty normal for January. This month averages highs of 54 degrees and lows of 39.

What should be on your New Year to-do list?

* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.

* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.

rose bud
This Barbra Streisand rose has pushed out a new bud despite the
cold. The plant nevertheless needs to be pruned, and all remaining
leaves stripped off.


* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.

* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.

* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees soon after a rain to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.

* This is also the time to spray a copper-based oil to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl.

* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.

* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.

* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.

* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.

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Garden Checklist for week of May 11

Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.

* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.

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