Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of July 21

Coneflowers ( Echinacea ) can be grown from seed. Start some now for fall planting. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

What to plant now: Start thinking fall

Relatively mild summer weather draws gardeners outdoors, even newbies who have never grown a tomato. Ever-hopeful procrastinators want to know: What can you plant now?

Stick to crops that appreciate warm nights and hot, dry days. That includes several fall vegetables such as winter squash and pumpkins. Maybe even squeeze in some corn.

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento will enjoy high temperatures just above 90 degrees for the next few days before creeping back toward triple digits.

So far, this has been a "cool" July, traditionally Sacramento's hottest time of the year. This month, we've only flirted with 100 degrees, a mark Sacramento hit four days in June.

It's not too hot to plant some seeds or add more transplants, but remember to keep them hydrated. Plants, like people, need extra water in mid-summer.

There's still time to plant some late-summer corn, but it

will need plenty of water.

* In the garden, direct seed beans, corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers. In spots with afternoon shade, plant beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* 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.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your vegetables a deep watering twice a week, more often if planted in containers.

* Harvest garlic and onions. Pull them before they flower.

* Divide and transplant bearded iris.

* Pinch back mums for bushier plants and more flowers.

* Pick up after your 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.

* Be on the lookout for hungry bugs!

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

fall vegetables fertilizing seeds harvests Sacramento garden chores chrysanthemums weather gardening vegetables summer garden irises perennials transplants

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Food in My Back Yard Series

SUMMER

July 15: Does this plant need water?

July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions

July 1: How to grow summer salad greens

June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal

SPRING

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

WINTER

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 July 13

Put off big chores and planting until later in the week when the weather is cooler. In the meantime, remember to stay hydrated – advice for both you and your garden.

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

* Water, then fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom.

* Give vegetable plants bone meal or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting.

* Add some summer color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

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

* 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.

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

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