After a record hot July, expect more triple digits (and hot August nights)
Sunflowers stand up well to summer heat -- and the bees love them as a pollen source. Kathy Morrison
Make a note in your garden diary and circle it in red: July 2024 was officially the hottest month in Sacramento’s recorded history.
According to the National Weather Service, the mean temperature for July (including day and night highs and lows) was 84.4 degrees; that’s 2.1 degrees hotter than the old record, set in August 2020.
Downtown Sacramento records date back to 1877, but this July really was one for the books. It had the most 100-degree days (21), 105-degree days (13) and 110-degree days (five). Only one day in the first two weeks of July didn’t reach triple digits.
That heat affected crops (and flowers) of all kinds, mostly to their detriment. No tomatoes? Few squash? Tiny roses? Blame it on the heat.
We start this new month with some hot August nights. Says the weather service, the expected low Saturday (Aug. 3) is 73 – 15 above normal.
Hot nights lead to hot days, so it’s not surprising that Sacramento will be flirting with or surpassing the 100-mark almost every day this week.
Fortunately, this current heat wave is not expected to stick around. The Delta breeze – our natural air conditioning – should be blowing again by Thursday. With its return, we should see more normal temperatures soon.
Historically in Sacramento, August averages highs of 91 degrees and lows of 58.
Meanwhile, make the most of cooler temperatures in the morning – and concentrate on keeping your garden (and yourself) hydrated.
* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing.
* Plants looking dusty? Covered with fine webs? Give them a morning shower. Wash off accumulated grime and spider mites with a blast from the hose.
* During August, deep water your plants twice a week, more if planted in containers.
* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s now forming.
* Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting. (Always water before feeding.)
* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.
* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.
* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Feed them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.
* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.
* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.
* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias, annuals and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.
* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.
* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, corn, leaf lettuce and turnips. Plant potatoes.
* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.
* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.
* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.
* Plant potatoes.
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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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