Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Nov. 10

Last of the big red tomatoes -- for this year, anyway. Colder nights won't allow the remaining green ones to ripen. This is a 12-ounce Better Boy, with a small green companion. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Make the most of warm, dry weather

No Arctic blast here! Our beautiful November weather continues with dry and sunny days in the 70s and overnight lows dipping into the low 40s.

Those chilly nights will keep tomatoes from ripening on the vine. It’s time to pull the last of the vines (if you haven’t already) and bring in the remaining greenies to redden up indoors.

In my own garden, I harvested my last full-size slicing tomato Saturday: A 12-ounce Better Boy. Although there were still green tomatoes on the plant, they wouldn’t get enough heat to mature.

These sunny days are too good to waste. Make the most of them with some much-needed yard work:

* Remember to water. Sacramento had no precipitation in October (a rarity for that month) and so far, November is just as dry. Check your soil moisture.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* Add compost to your garden beds to revitalize them.

* Keep planting bulbs including daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

seeds Sacramento bouquet peach leaf curl garden chores fall weather late-season tomatoes gardening chelated iron checklist bulbs compost watering

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Garden Checklist for week of May 5

Survey your garden after the May 4 rainstorm. Heavy rain and gusty winds can break the neck of large flowers such as roses. Also:

* Keep an eye on new transplants or seedlings; they could take a pounding from the rain.

* Watch out for powdery mildew. Warmth following moist conditions can cause this fungal disease to “bloom,” too. If you see a leaf that looks like it’s dusted with powdered sugar, snip it off.

* After the storm, start setting out tomato transplants, but wait on the peppers and eggplants (they want warmer nights). Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Don’t wait; plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

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