Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Feb. 10

If you have established strawberry plants, you can fertilize them now. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Chilly, wet weather makes for moist conditions

Unusually chilly (and wet) weather has made February gardening feel frosty. Some foothill gardeners even saw snow.

Temperatures are tracking about 10 degrees below normal in the Sacramento area, which usually sees plenty of 60s this time of year. Don’t even think about setting out tomatoes or other summer vegetables; it’s just too cold.

That big chill stalls growth for a lot of plants. Many will just sit there and do nothing until the sun comes back out and starts warming the soil.

On the positive side, all that rain has made the ground moist and easy to work (as well as kept everything hydrated).

Make the most of breaks in the rain to tackle these tasks:

* Weed, weed, weed! Grasses are spouting all over and growing rapidly. So is bindweed and nutsedge. Dig them out while they’re young.

* Finish pruning roses, perennials and crape myrtles.

Asparagus poking up means spring's on the way. Feed asparagus plants now.

* Pick a bouquet of daffodils or other spring bulbs to enjoy indoors. (Rain just knocks them over.)

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Remove aphids from blooming bulbs with a strong spray of water or insecticidal soap.

* Fertilize strawberries and asparagus.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

Kale can still be transplanted.

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions. Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Transplant or direct seed snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

strawberries fertilizing seeds root divisions. potatoes pruning annuals garden chores winter greens 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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