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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 9

Get to work early during 'average' August weather

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 8, 2020

Keep those peppers and other summer veggies harvested to prompt the plants to keep producing. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Clear, sunny and hot -- what would you expect during early August in Sacramento? That's the forecast for most of this coming week.

According to the National Weather Service, expect highs to hit 95 or 96 degrees most afternoons. In other words, "average" for early August. Thankfully, overnight lows will keep dipping down to around 60 degrees and light Delta breezes should bring a little relief, too. Make the most of those cool mornings.

* 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. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. Always water before feeding.

* 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.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* Deadhead roses for fall flowers. Look out for aphids and whiteflies.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insect pests and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then, feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production next year.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

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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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