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Mulch is good, and more mulch is better

Don't let the sun cook your plants' roots

It's June 4 and it's going to be at least 100 degrees again this afternoon. Do you know where your mulch is?

I bought more straw this morning after I took a soil thermometer out into my rapidly heating backyard Wednesday afternoon. The air temperature at 2:15 p.m. was 99 degrees, according to my cellphone's weather app, and the wall thermometer in the shade in the garden itself read 98. So it already was plenty hot.

I stuck the soil thermometer into the top inch of a non-mulched spot next to a basil plant in my raised bed, which at that point was in full sun (and had been for several hours).

The thermometer popped up to 104 degrees -- in the area on the thermometer helpfully labeled "MAX."

I pushed the thermometer down several inches in the same spot; the number dropped to 97 degrees. Still quite hot, but better. Next I tried a shady area in the same raised bed: 82 degrees, in the optimal range. So my goal is to bump up the mulch here, and keep those plant roots in the optimal range. The cooking can happen later, in the kitchen.

A few other gardening notes on this early June day:

-- Harvest Day this year will be virtual, because of the coronavirus risk. This is a big event held the first Saturday in August at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. The UCCE Sacramento County master gardeners typically show off their demonstration gardens in a festive atmosphere. This year, the master gardeners will have a collection of videos highlighting their various areas. There will be a lot more information coming as we get closer to August. One good thing: The videos will allow folks who've never been able to attend Harvest Day to "visit" the Hort Center.

Squash plants, hanging in there. They'll get more

mulch.

-- Keep a close eye on your vegetable plants. With this heat, all the nasty things that can happen to them are being exacerbated. Bugs! Wilting! Fungus! Pollination problems! But remember: Don't overwater; don't feed a plant that's wilting; keep some shade cloth handy for the plants suffering most. Oh, and mulch!

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Harvest Day UCCE master gardeners gardening Sacramento Fair Oaks Horticulture Center mulch vegetable gardening weather

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Food in My Back Yard Series

June 17: Help pollinators help your garden

June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests

June 3: Make your own compost

May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?

May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days

May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden Checklist for week of June 22

Mornings this first week of summer will remain comfortably cool – just right for gardening!

* Water early in the morning to cut down on evaporation. Check soil moisture and deep water trees and shrubs. Keep new transplants and veggies evenly moist. Deep water tomatoes to encourage deep roots.

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

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.

* Avoid pot “hot feet.” Place a 1-inch-thick board under container plants sitting on pavement. This little cushion helps insulate them from radiated heat.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

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