Keep garden hydrated and cool as possible
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At least sunflowers don’t add to the high temperatures — they just add summer cheerfulness. (Photo:
Kathy Morrison) |
How hot can it get? This weekend may show us.
According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento’s high temperatures will flirt with our all-time record of 114 degrees.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect until Monday night. The weather service recommends people and pets stay indoors after 10 a.m.
Unfortunately, your garden can’t come inside or turn on the air conditioning. It’s going to have to wait until the return of the Delta Breeze on Tuesday before it gets some temperature relief.
In the meantime, concentrate on keeping your garden – and yourself – as cool, hydrated and comfortable as possible:
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
* Don’t let tomatoes dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.
* Check soil moisture and irrigate where needed. Container plants may need daily watering.
* Deep water trees and shrubs.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.
* Harvest tomatoes, squash, peppers and eggplant. Prompt picking will help keep plants producing.
* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other shrubs and 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.
* One good thing about hot days: Most lawns stop growing when temperatures top 95 degrees. Keep mower blades set on high.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: 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.
* 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.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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