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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 July 21

Your garden needs you!

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

* Feed vegetable plants bone meal, rock phosphate or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting. (But wait until daily high temperatures drop out of the 100s.)

* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. 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 in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.

* 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.

* It's not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

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

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