Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 4

Make a note in your garden diary and circle it in red: July 2024 was officially the hottest month in Sacramento’s recorded history.

According to the National Weather Service, the mean temperature for July (including day and night highs and lows) was 84.4 degrees; that’s 2.1 degrees hotter than the old record, set in August 2020.

Downtown Sacramento records date back to 1877, but this July really was one for the books. It had the most 100-degree days (21), 105-degree days (13) and 110-degree days (five). Only one day in the first two weeks of July didn’t reach triple digits.

That heat affected crops (and flowers) of all kinds, mostly to their detriment. No tomatoes? Few squash? Tiny roses? Blame it on the heat.

We start this new month with some hot August nights. Says the weather service, the expected low Saturday (Aug. 3) is 73 – 15 above normal.

Hot nights lead to hot days, so it’s not surprising that Sacramento will be flirting with or surpassing the 100-mark almost every day this week.

Fortunately, this current heat wave is not expected to stick around. The Delta breeze – our natural air conditioning – should be blowing again by Thursday. With its return, we should see more normal temperatures soon.

Historically in Sacramento, August averages highs of 91 degrees and lows of 58.

Meanwhile, make the most of cooler temperatures in the morning – and concentrate on keeping your garden (and yourself) hydrated.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing.

* Plants looking dusty? Covered with fine webs? Give them a morning shower. Wash off accumulated grime and spider mites with a blast from the hose.

* During August, deep water your plants twice a week, more if planted in containers.

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

* Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. (Always water before feeding.)

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Feed them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* 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.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias, annuals and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

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

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, corn, leaf lettuce and turnips. Plant potatoes.

* 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.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.