Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 8

Apple season is here! Be sure to pick up any fallen fruit and fertilize your deciduous fruit trees. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

This weather was made for gardening; time to get stuff done!

Take advantage of a cooldown.

The final weeks of summer are feeling a lot like fall, with high temperatures forecast in the mid 80s -- well below normal for this week in Sacramento.

Undoubtedly, you'll find plenty to do in your garden as plants are transitioning from hot summer to cool fall and winter.

Before you pull out those tomato plants and other summer favorites, notice if they're flowering and setting new fruit. Conditions for another round of tomatoes look ideal. If weather stays dry and mild, those bonus toms will be ripe in time for Thanksgiving.

* Weed, weed, weed! Lots of grasses and other invaders grew rapidly in August and may be now getting ready to bloom (if they haven't already). Pull them out before they have a chance to set and distribute seed.
* 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.
* Pick up fallen fruit from apples and pears.
* 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.
* 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.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

fall vegetables seeds peonies Sacramento daylilies garden chores fruit trees dig and divide summer cleanup fall planting gardening checklist bulbs compost weeds

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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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