Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checkllst for week of July 14

Harvest blackberries as they ripen. Check daily. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Enjoy some totally normal July days, watch your crops

This coming week will be just about as normal as it gets for July in Sacramento.

After a weekend spike in temperature to open the State Fair, highs will be back in the low 90s Monday through Friday, and likely into next weekend, too.

According to the National Weather Service, the average high for July is 92 degrees. Expect to see 91 or 92 at least three days this week, probably more.

What that means: It's perfect tomato weather. They'll ripen rapidly. So will squash, berries and stone fruit.

Tomatoes love this weather and
will ripen rapidly now.

*Harvest frequently; that encourages several varieties of tomatoes, squash, beans and peppers to bear more.

* Cut back berry canes after harvest. Remove the canes that bore fruit to encourage new growth.

* 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. Bone meal or other high-phosphate fertilizers stimulate more blooms and fruiting.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other shrubs or perennials 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.

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

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

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tomatoes Sacramento National Weather Service what to plant now garden chores garden checklist checklist July weather

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Garden Checklist for week of May 19

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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