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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 16

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED SEP 15, 2018

Whenever autumn arrives in your garden, remember to compost the fallen leaves. (Photo: Kathy Morrison)

Compost fall leaves for garden gold

It’s almost officially fall. That’s when nature really gets into recycling. Why do you think so many trees lose their leaves?

By the look of some birches and Japanese maples, autumn and its annual leaf drop may come early. Deciduous trees are already showing their fall colors.

Follow nature’s lead by making the most of those fallen leaves. Turn them into mulch by shredding with a lawn mower. Or just use them as is for a forest-floor look.

Or add them to your compost pile. This “brown” material is essential for garden gold.

Also to do this week:

* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.

* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.

* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees. Water deeply before feeding.

* Pick up any fallen fruit. If you live in the Sacramento quarantine area for Oriental fruit fly, either compost discarded fruit on site or double bag it in plastic and dispose of it in the garbage bin, not green waste. (This is a change in previous recommendations.)

* Plant onions, 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.

* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.

* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.

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CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

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Keywords:

seeds Sacramento trees daylilies garden chores fall gardening leaves composting fall planting vegetables Oriental fruit flies. gardening bulbs perennials

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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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