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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 30

August ends with hazy days before another heat wave

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 29, 2020

Harvest basket

The vegetables may look a little ragged this late in the season -- and the air a

bit smoky, even in the morning -- but keep harvesting to prompt plants

to continue producing. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

After unbearable conditions most of this month, the last few days of August feel (almost) comfortable.
Lingering wildfire smoke continues to keep our skies hazy (and air quality unhealthy for sensitive people).

But a fog bank off the coast and some Delta breeze have kept high temperatures in the low 90s, average for late August. The haze lowered temperatures a degree or two, too.

Enjoy these low 90s while you can. The National Weather Service forecasts a string of triple-digit days starting Tuesday and lasting through Labor Day, with afternoon highs 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

Concentrate your garden chores on Sunday and Monday, then prepare for another heat wave.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing.
* Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers.
* Consider pulling unproductive or spent plants in the vegetable garden. Tomatoes won't set in triple-digit heat. Make room for fall planting.
* Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.
* Divide and replant bearded irises.
* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot.
* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.
* Knock spider mites and their webs off plants with a blast of water. Do this in the morning for best results.
* Wash any accumulated ash from wildfires off leaves.
* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.
* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

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Garden Checklist for week of Sept. 15

Make the most of the cool break this week – and get things done. Your garden needs you!

* Now is the time to plant for fall. The warm soil will get cool-season veggies off to a fast start.

* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant.

* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.

* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.

* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.

* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.

* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.

* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.

* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.

* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.

* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with "eyes" about an inch below the soil surface.

* Late September is ideal for sowing a new lawn or re-seeding bare spots.

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