Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 18

If your melons are close to ripening, be sure not to overwater them. In fact, you can cut back the water a bit.

This prevents mushy flesh and splitting. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Following toasty temperatures, show your garden some TLC

After that mid-week spike into triple digits, this weekend’s cooldown will feel particularly refreshing, for both people and plants.

Those high temperatures toasted blooms and hastened some annuals to an early demise. Perennials and bulbs died back quickly.

Take advantage of this cooler weather to show your garden some TLC.

Deadhead roses and trim off other spent flowers such as daisies and asters. Cut back daylily stems as well as other lilies as they brown.

Have your bearded irises stopped blooming or had fewer flowers this past spring? It’s time to divide and rejuvenate their beds. Irises need dividing every three or four years; August is ideal for this task. Dig in a little compost before replanting the rhizomes.

For irises staying in place, trim back their browned leaves to prepare for new growth.

Also in mid-August:

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that's now forming.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplant.

* Keep an eye on melons; they can ripen rapidly in this weather. Too much water can cause them to split.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Plant onions, leaf lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.

* Remember to water; morning or evening is best. Check the soil before pulling out the hose.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

fall vegetables fertilizing seeds tomatoes Sacramento garden chores summer produce citrus trees irrigation gardening temperatures melons irises summer gardens perennials

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Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s 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.

* 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.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. 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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