Dig In: Garden checklist for week of July 4

As tomatoes and other summer veggies ripen, keep them picked so the plants will continue producing. This is a patio-size yellow tomato. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Happy July Fourth! It’s cool enough to go outdoors!

After watching the Northwest swelter under a heat dome, no one in Sacramento is complaining about how hot it is this week. We don’t even have a single triple-digit afternoon in our immediate forecast.

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento will see a string of days in the low 90s, starting with Sunday’s holiday. That’s normal; Sacramento’s early July averages are highs and lows of 92 degrees and 59, respectively.

High temperatures will creep back to the 97-99 range by Friday, but the next few days will be comfortable with nights cooling off to about 60 degrees.

That evening cool down moderates our afternoon heat and makes mornings the best time to get things done in the garden:

* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.

* Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.

* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly now.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.

* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.

* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers.