Soggy week offers some gardening breaks
Camellia leaves collect raindrops during Saturday's storm. Those fat little buds should bloom just in time for Sacramento's 100th anniversary Camellia Show in early March. Kathy Morrison
Saturday’s storm has given our gardens a good, deep soaking – and more rain is on the way.
According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect more rain on Tuesday evening into Wednesday. Then another round of showers is forecast to arrive Friday night and continue into next weekend.
These next two storm systems will be much lighter than Saturday’s steady rain. The weather service expects the Sacramento area to get a half inch to an inch of rain before the clouds clear out Sunday morning.
Between storms this week, temperatures will stay relatively warm with days in the high 50s or low 60s and overnight lows in the mid 40s. Normal for mid-January in Sacramento: high of 54 degrees and low of 39.
So, keep the umbrella and mud boots handy, but the frost cloths can be put aside – at least for this week.
Turn off your irrigation system, if you haven’t already. Be careful of soggy soil; it can compact easily, squeezing out the air needed by microbes and roots.
* After the rain, our soil should be soft and easy to dig – making it a great time to transplant. Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* If your ground seems saturated, consider planting your garden additions in large black plastic pots. The black plastic will warm up faster than the ground soil and give roots a healthy start. Then, transplant the new addition (rootball and all) into the ground in April as the weather warms.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* Plant calla, anemone, ranunculus and gladiolus tubers or bulbs for bloom from late spring into summer.
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Garden Checklist for week of Sept. 8
Temperatures are headed down to normal. The rest of the month kicks off fall planting season:
* Harvest 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.
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