Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of July 5

Keep an eye on zucchini; it grows rapidly in hot weather. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Make most of cool mornings; keep garden hydrated

Happy Independence Day weekend! Celebrate with some garden time.

Plan on getting chores done early. According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento will see a steady string of warm dry days with temperatures topping out in the mid to high 90s.

Fortunately, overnight lows cool down to below 60, setting up pleasant conditions each morning. We shouldn't see 80 degrees until after 11 a.m. each day.

Those conditions are slightly above normal for July in Sacramento; this month averages highs of 92 and lows of 59. Don't expect any rain until August -- or most likely later. July averages 0.00 inches of precipitation.

This week, make the most of those mornings:

Elsie the tabby cat provides a little extra mulch -- temporarily

-- to a bed of newly seeded winter squash.

* 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. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom.

* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.

* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers 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.

* Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

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

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

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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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