Sacramento Digs Gardening: Get ready for a heat wave

This little tomato is in danger of getting sunburned in triple-digit heat. Shade cloth and burlap are options for afternoon shade. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Triple-digit temperatures are on the way; help your garden cope

Is your garden ready for summer? Although we’ll officially still be in spring for almost another month, high heat is coming very soon.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures will rise rapidly over Memorial Day weekend. The greater Sacramento area could hit triple digits as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Several days in the high 90s are forecast including a string of midweek 99s.

Take time now before this late May heat wave to help your garden cope:

* Deep water shrubs, trees, perennials and vegetables. Give your tomatoes a good soaking.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! Spread a thick, cooling layer of organic material to retain that moisture and keep plant roots temperate. Use straw, old leaves, bark, grass clippings, even shredded newspaper. Don’t use rocks; they retain too much heat.

Heat will make artichokes open quickly.

* Harvest lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and other cool-season vegetables. This heat will cause them to bolt – send out flower shoots and go quickly to seed. Higher temperatures also tends to make greens bitter.

* Harvest artichokes before the flowers open. (The heat will open them quickly.) Those little artichokes on side shoots won’t get bigger; they’re ready, just smaller.

* Shade peas, spinach and other cool-season crops that aren’t ready to harvest. Erect temporary shade structures to ward off some of that blistering afternoon sun. That will buy those veggies a few more weeks of production.

* Already have baby tomatoes or peppers? Shade those plants in the hot afternoon, too, to protect from sunburn.

* Keep an eye on new plantings and seedlings. Make sure they stay hydrated. Check soil moisture and water in the early morning or evening.

* Create some needed summer shade for veggies – plant sunflowers. These fast-growing (and tall) plants can shade neighbors who appreciate an afternoon break from direct sun such as peppers or eggplant.

* Let the vines keep the soil cooler. Plant watermelons, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, squash and other vining crops. Their vines will cover the soil, keeping it cooler and blocking out weeds. To be doubly effective, mulch around the plants before the vines cover everything.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

gardening Sacramento sunflowers vegetables heat heat wave mulch shade summer weather vines

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Food in My Back Yard Series

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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Once the clouds clear, get to work. Spring growth is in high gear.

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* 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. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* 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.

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