Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 25

In hot weather, harvest crops daily. Tomatoes and other vegetables can

ripen rapidly. The plants also may need some shade to prevent sunburn.
(Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Are your plants ready for more triple-digit weather?

Hot! That's the forecast from the National Weather Service as Sacramento faces at least five consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures.

The upper range for the Central Valley is predicted between 98 and 107 degrees for Tuesday, the peak of this heat wave. Keeping us warm, overnight lows are hovering around 70.

Stay hydrated. That goes for you and your garden. Irrigate early in the morning or evening. Try to limit your garden activities to the cooler parts of the day.

Put off major chores and planting until the weather cools back down into the low and mid 90s, the current forecast for next weekend. (Remember: It's not lazy, it's smart.)

What to do while you can:
* Test soil moisture. Use a moisture meter or just a long-handled screwdriver. If it can't penetrate 6 inches, that hard soil is too dry. Deep water where needed.

* Harvest daily. Crops can ripen rapidly in hot weather and quickly go over the top.

* Got watermelons? As they near ripeness, cut back on water for the last two weeks or they may split. Look at the little curly tendril growing opposite the melon on the vine. If it's green and springy, the melon is still growing, so keep watering. If it's yellow, cut back on irrigation. If the tendril is brown, the melon is at full size and ripe.

* Shade ripening tomatoes, eggplant and peppers; they can easily sunburn in this weather.

* Skip the fertilizer this week; it may cause more plant stress than good.

* Check on new transplants; are they getting enough water? Do they need temporary shade?

* Let the lawn grow (if it's growing at all). Longer grass conserves moisture.

* Pick up fallen fruit; it attracts all sorts of pests.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

harvest Sacramento garden chores soil moisture irrigation weather gardening lawns heat checklist melons summer sunburn transplants

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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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