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Healthy Recipes for BBQ Season
As the days grow longer and the temperatures rise, it's time to fire up the grill and indulge in the delights of outdoor cooking. But who says BBQ season has to be all about indulgence? With a lit...
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Heat is here; help your garden cope with so much sun
Hot: That’s the official Sacramento forecast for this week. What would you expect?
As the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office tweeted Saturday: “How confident are we that this weekend will be hot? It’s a sure bet it will feel like July.”
Triple-digit highs continue at least Sunday and maybe Monday before a slight cooldown to the mid 90s – normal for mid-July in Sacramento. According to the weather service, overnight lows will dip down to around 60 each night; that will help temper those sizzling afternoons.
Few if any clouds are in the forecast, so expect lots of blasting sun. Consider erecting some temporary shade for peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and other plants prone to sunburn. They’ll appreciate it.
Watch out for your own health, too. Limit outdoor activity to early morning or early evening. Wear sun protection. Don't overdo it; heat stress is dangerous.
* Water early in the morning, preferably before 8 a.m. That will cut down on evaporation.
* One good thing about hot days: Most lawns stop growing when temperatures top 95 degrees. Keep mower blades set on high. Longer grass needs less irrigation; it shades its own roots.
* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded.
* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week. (Note: Tomatoes and other broad-leafed vegetables sometimes wilt in the afternoon as a survival technique. They should pop back into form after sundown. Wilting in the morning in when you should worry about them -- and water them.)
* When temperatures cool down later this week, fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom. Always water before applying fertilizer.
* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.
* If your melons and squash aren't setting fruit, give the bees a hand. With a small, soft paintbrush, gather some pollen from male flowers, then brush it inside the female flowers, which have a tiny swelling at the base of their petals. (That’s the embryo melon or squash.) Within days, that little swelling should start growing.
* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.
* Pinch blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.
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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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