Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checkllst for week of July 14

Harvest blackberries as they ripen. Check daily. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Enjoy some totally normal July days, watch your crops

This coming week will be just about as normal as it gets for July in Sacramento.

After a weekend spike in temperature to open the State Fair, highs will be back in the low 90s Monday through Friday, and likely into next weekend, too.

According to the National Weather Service, the average high for July is 92 degrees. Expect to see 91 or 92 at least three days this week, probably more.

What that means: It's perfect tomato weather. They'll ripen rapidly. So will squash, berries and stone fruit.

Tomatoes love this weather and
will ripen rapidly now.

*Harvest frequently; that encourages several varieties of tomatoes, squash, beans and peppers to bear more.

* Cut back berry canes after harvest. Remove the canes that bore fruit to encourage new growth.

* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.

* Water, then fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Bone meal or other high-phosphate fertilizers stimulate more blooms and fruiting.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other shrubs or perennials as they finish flowering.

* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.

* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.

* From seed, plant corn, beans, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

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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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