Sacramento Digs Gardening: It's not too late to plant a garden

Plant seeds now and grow your own pumpkin patch. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Midsummer possibilities: Corn, pumpkins, winter squash

Happy July! Usually this month ushers in a whirlwind of summer activities including the State Fair. Due to COVID concerns, it looks like we'll be staying close to home, just as we have for the past three months.

Is it too late to plant a vegetable garden?

It's never too late -- or too early -- to plant a garden in Sacramento. It just depends on what you plan to plant.

July represents a month of possibilities, especially when the weather has cooled just a bit. While tomatoes and peppers are producing their first harvests, several other warm weather crops are just now going into the ground.

What to plant now?

Corn: Planted now, it will produce ears around Labor Day. Corn needs other stalks nearby for pollination. For best results, plant in blocks (such as 12 by 12 plants) instead of single or double rows. Corn needs a lot of water, so make sure sprouts stay well watered.

Pumpkins: This is prime pumpkin planting weather. Seeded now, they'll be ready for Halloween -- or a little earlier. They like a mound layered with aged compost or manure and room to roam; their vines can cover easily cover a 10-foot-square space. To thrive, those fast-growing vines need deep watering twice a week.

Winter squash: Butternut, acorn and other favorites can go in the ground now for fall harvest. Treat them like pumpkins, their close cousins.

Sunflowers work as both summer and early fall

flowers. Bees like them anytime.

Sunflowers: They're fast and fun. Planted now, they'll produce big fall bouquets. And the bees will thank you.

Radishes: The fastest-growing vegetable in the garden is fun for kids. They'll be ready to pick in August.

Want more flowers? It's not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

Just remember to keep everything consistently watered and mulched. Then, plan on enjoying a fall harvest from your summer shut-in garden.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

seeds gardening pumpkins Sacramento sunflowers coronavirus vegetable gardening summer flowers corn flowers

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Food in My Back Yard Series

April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth

March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden Checklist for week of May 4

Enjoy this spring weather – and get gardening!

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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