Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 18

Compared to our scorching July, August feels like a breeze. This coming week looks especially appealing with Sacramento’s high temperatures expected to be as much as 10 degrees below average for mid August.

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect to enjoy several days in the 80s or low 90s. Only one day – Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 94 degrees – is forecast above average for this date. Normal for mid-August: 92.

This week could be a sweet spot for tomatoes and other summer favorites. If they have blooms, they may actually get fertilized. The tomato pollen won’t dry out too fast (a problem in triple-digit weather) and bees will be visiting the squash flowers. We could see tomatoes and squash for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Make the most of this comfortable weather and get to work:

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

* Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. (Always water before feeding.)

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

* 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.

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

* Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer.

* 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.