The combination of extreme heat plus smoke has stressed plants as well as people.
Bring gardening questions to this free public event
Hardy tropical plants can handle high temperatures.
Broccoli: It's green, it's healthy, and it can be a challenge to grow in warmer areas.
Indoors is safer for humans and pets. Plants will survive if they're well-irrigated.
This creamy dessert won’t heat up the kitchen like most fruit pies.
Water early and deeply to help plants survive the heat wave
How gardeners can help rose growers choose what to plant
It's too hot to plant now but not too hot to plan a fall garden.
Melon-avocado salad with lemon vinaigrette
Fragrant fruit melds well with peppers, cilantro
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Garden Checklist for week of Sept. 22
Why plant now? Plants like it: Warm soil is great for planting and rapid root development.
* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant. Some tomatoes and peppers may stretch their harvest into October or November.
* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing. If you see no new fruit on your tomatoes, pull them out.
* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.
* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.
* Plant onions, 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.
* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.
* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.
* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.
* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.
* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with “eyes” about an inch below the soil surface.
* Late September is ideal for sowing a new lawn or re-seeding bare spots.