Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of May 26

Squash seedlings will grow rapidly once the weather warms up. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

After so much rain, summer gardening hits high gear

How will your garden respond to all that rain?

Sacramento’s wettest May on record gave everything a thorough and deep watering. Most of the area received 3-plus inches, more than four times normal for the month.

All that extra (free) irrigation got most summer transplants off to an especially strong start. Meanwhile, cool weather – 10 degrees or more below normal temperatures – prolonged the season for many early spring vegetables such as snap peas and lettuce.

Your peppers and melons may have just been sitting there, but soon they’ll be kicking into high gear. Temperatures in the 80s are forecast by mid-week, and warmer summer weather patterns are on the way.

Tomato transplants already are growing rapidly and setting their first fruit. That may mean ripe tomatoes by July 4.

* Weed! Weed! Weed! That wet weather prompted millions of dormant weed seeds to sprout, and now those plants are growing rapidly. Pull or whack them while they’re young, and definitely before they set seed.

* It’s not too late to plant a summer garden including transplants of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Choose quick-maturing varieties.

Still plenty of time to plant melon seeds -- they'll grow rapidly

in more typical late spring temperatures.

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

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. For faster flowers, transplant seedlings.

* Plant dahlia tubers.

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

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Dead-head roses, pruning off spent flowers. The bush will re-bloom in six to eight weeks.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

seeds gardening Sacramento pruning annuals roses garden chores summer vegetables rainfall perennials weeds

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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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