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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of June 30

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 29, 2019

Add some zinnias to your summer garden for splashes of color. They're great cutting flowers. too. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Get ready for July and summer heat

Sacramento has a reputation for blazing hot summers, but July is traditionally warm, not stifling. High temperatures average 92 degrees with overnight lows just below 60.

This first week of July fits that pattern with typical temperatures and warm, dry days. In other words, it’s perfect for summer gardening.

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

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

* Put your tomatoes on a schedule. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week. Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more.

This zucchini should be picked today or tomorrow. Six to 8 inches tends to be

optimum size, but some gardeners like the monster ones.

* Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in July weather. Keep an eye on zucchini. The big ones sometimes hide.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers.

* It's not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

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

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CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

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seeds tomatoes Sacramento garden chores zucchini deadheading squash weather gardening heat mulch summer annuals zinnias watering weeds

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Dig In: Garden Checklist

For week of Dec. 3:

Make the most of gaps between raindrops. This is a busy month!

* Windy conditions brought down a lot of leaves. Make sure to rake them away from storm drains.

* Use those leaves as mulch around frost-tender shrubs and new transplants.

* Rake and remove dead leaves and stems from dormant perennials.

* Just because it rained doesn't mean every plant got watered. Give a drink to plants that the rain didn't reach, such as under eves or under evergreen trees. Also, well-watered plants hold up better to frost than thirsty plants.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while they're dormant.

* Clean and sharpen garden tools before storing for the winter.

* Brighten the holidays with winter bloomers such as poinsettias, amaryllis, calendulas, Iceland poppies, pansies and primroses.

* Keep poinsettias in a sunny, warm location. Water thoroughly. After the holidays, feed your plants monthly so they'll bloom again next December.

* Plant one last round of spring bulbs including daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, anemones and scillas. Get those tulips out of the refrigerator and into the ground.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers such as California poppies.

* Plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Late fall is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

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

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Bare-root season begins. Plant bare-root berries, kiwifruit, grapes, artichokes, horseradish and rhubarb. Beware of soggy soil. It can rot bare-root plants.

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