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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 1, 2020

Keep cherry tomatoes and others harvested to keep the plant producing. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

July really was hot; expect a normal August

It wasn't your imagination. If you thought this summer felt hotter than usual, you're right!

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento daily highs in July averaged 96.9 degrees, 3.6 degrees above normal. We endured 10 days in triple digits, topped by two days (July 11 and 12) at 106.

We weren't the only folks who saw baking-hot temperatures. Redding, for example, had 21 triple-digit days in July, including 111 on July 15. Redding highs averaged 101 degrees for the month.

Fortunately, Sacramento overnight lows stayed normal -- 61 degrees. That nightly cooldown kept mornings (and soil) comfortable.

As for the week ahead? After a few more hot days, our afternoons will settle down into the low 90s with overnights dipping down into the 50s. That's normal; our August highs average 91 degrees with lows of 58.

Don't expect any rain soon. Our August precipitation averages 0.05 inches.

What to do during cool mornings this week:

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, peppers and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that's now forming.

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

* If camellia leaves are looking a little yellow, give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

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

Keep roses deadheaded.

* Trim off spent rose blooms.

* 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. 8

Temperatures are headed down to normal. The rest of the month kicks off fall planting season:

* Harvest 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.

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