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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Nov. 10


Last of the big red tomatoes -- for this year, anyway. Colder nights won't allow the remaining green ones to ripen. This is a 12-ounce Better Boy, with a small green companion. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Make the most of warm, dry weather


No Arctic blast here! Our beautiful November weather continues with dry and sunny days in the 70s and overnight lows dipping into the low 40s.

Those chilly nights will keep tomatoes from ripening on the vine. It’s time to pull the last of the vines (if you haven’t already) and bring in the remaining greenies to redden up indoors.

In my own garden, I harvested my last full-size slicing tomato Saturday: A 12-ounce Better Boy. Although there were still green tomatoes on the plant, they wouldn’t get enough heat to mature.

These sunny days are too good to waste. Make the most of them with some much-needed yard work:

* Remember to water. Sacramento had no precipitation in October (a rarity for that month) and so far, November is just as dry. Check your soil moisture.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* Add compost to your garden beds to revitalize them.

* Keep planting bulbs including daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 9

Be careful walking or working in wet soil; it compacts easily.

* Keep the irrigation turned off; the ground is plenty wet with more rain on the way.

* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.

* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

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