August ends on a warm note, but cooler days coming soon
Coneflowers come in more colors than just purple. Seed some now for bright flowers beloved by pollinators. Kathy Morrison
August ends of with more days in the upper 90s, nudging triple digits. But relief is on the way.
According to the National Weather Service, a cooldown is coming soon, maybe by Labor Day weekend.
This week, forecast highs for Sacramento call for comfortable mornings with temperatures in the 70s before warming to the high 90s in the afternoons. That peaks with an expected high of 100 on Wednesday.
However, by Friday (and the start of September), we’ll be back down in the 80s. Friday’s forecast high is only 86 degrees, five degrees below normal.
Plan accordingly; put off transplanting until next weekend. Take care of garden chores in the early morning including deep watering your vegetables.
* 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.
* 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.
* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.
* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials. Bearded iris should be at the top of that list.
* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.
* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant.
* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.
* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.
* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.
* 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.
* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.
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Garden Checklist for week of July 21
Your garden needs you!
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
* Feed vegetable plants bone meal, rock phosphate or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting. (But wait until daily high temperatures drop out of the 100s.)
* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.
* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.
* 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.
* 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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