Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 18

If your melons are close to ripening, be sure not to overwater them. In fact, you can cut back the water a bit.

This prevents mushy flesh and splitting. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Following toasty temperatures, show your garden some TLC

After that mid-week spike into triple digits, this weekend’s cooldown will feel particularly refreshing, for both people and plants.

Those high temperatures toasted blooms and hastened some annuals to an early demise. Perennials and bulbs died back quickly.

Take advantage of this cooler weather to show your garden some TLC.

Deadhead roses and trim off other spent flowers such as daisies and asters. Cut back daylily stems as well as other lilies as they brown.

Have your bearded irises stopped blooming or had fewer flowers this past spring? It’s time to divide and rejuvenate their beds. Irises need dividing every three or four years; August is ideal for this task. Dig in a little compost before replanting the rhizomes.

For irises staying in place, trim back their browned leaves to prepare for new growth.

Also in mid-August:

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

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplant.

* Keep an eye on melons; they can ripen rapidly in this weather. Too much water can cause them to split.

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

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Plant onions, leaf 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.

* Remember to water; morning or evening is best. Check the soil before pulling out the hose.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

fall vegetables fertilizing seeds tomatoes Sacramento garden chores summer produce citrus trees irrigation gardening temperatures melons irises summer gardens perennials

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Garden checklist for week of Feb. 8

Dodge those raindrops and get things done! Your garden needs you.

* Start your spring (and summer) garden. 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 Brussels sprouts – 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.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before they bloom. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees soon after a rain. But remember: Oils need at least 24 hours to dry to be effective. Don’t spray during foggy weather or when rain is forecast.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Remove aphids from blooming bulbs with a strong spray of water or insecticidal soap.

* Fertilize strawberries and asparagus.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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