Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 24

Happy first day of fall! Sacramento starts a new season with beautiful autumn weather and just a touch of chill in the morning air.

Temperatures for this first week of fall will be on the cool side – as much as 10 degrees below normal. According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect afternoon highs in the upper 70s and low 80s through next weekend. Sacramento’s average high for late September: 88 degrees.

Meanwhile, our overnight lows will remain just about average – 56 degrees. That means soil will retain its summer warmth for at least a little longer; that’s good for new transplants.

Due to a large storm front, rain is expected for much of Northern California on Monday, but most of those clouds will pass Sacramento by. The weather service estimates Sacramento’s chance of rain at only 25% with less than 0.1 inches possible on Monday evening.

Otherwise, our weather will be just right for fall gardening. What are you waiting for?

* Now is the time to plant for fall. The warm soil will get these veggies off to a fast start.

* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant. Tomatoes may ripen faster off the vine and sitting on the kitchen counter.

* 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. That includes bearded iris; if they haven’t bloomed in three years, it’s time to dig them up and divide their rhizomes.

* 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.