Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2

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.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

seeds gardening Sacramento vegetables roses summer vegetables garden checklist vegetable gardening checklist

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Local News

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 19

Dress warmly in layers – and get to work:

* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.

* This is also the time to spray a copper-based oil to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.

* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.

* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback if pruned now. Save those until summer.)

* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.

* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.

* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.

* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.

* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.

* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.

* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.

* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.

* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.

* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.

* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.

* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!