Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 17

The final week of summer should be ideal for gardening – and getting ready for fall.

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect mild afternoons and highs in the low to mid 80s, actually below normal for this time of year. Our average high for this week: 87 degrees.

Meanwhile, nights will be relatively warm, never dipping below our average low of 56. That’s good news for transplants; warm soil makes for good root development.

* Don’t wait any longer! Now is the time to plant for fall. The warm soil will get cool-season vegetables and annuals off to a fast start.

* 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 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.