Vegetables and flowers benefit from cooler than average temperatures
A double orange daylily blooms on the first day of summer in Sacramento. Mild June weather may extend bloom season for many late spring favorites. Debbie Arrington
Our (relative) cool streak continues, and that’s good news for our tomatoes and squash.
Summer officially started at 7:57 a.m. Wednesday and, according to the National Weather Service, our new season starts like the last one ended – with below-average temperatures.
“Happy Summer Solstice!” tweeted the NWS Sacramento office on Wednesday morning. “We’re feeling cool for the Summer with these high temperatures. Our highs start to warm slightly as we head into the weekend but our temps will still be below average!”
The forecast calls for Sacramento highs of only 78 degrees on Thursday and 79 on Friday – 10 degrees below our late-June average. We’re expected to warm up slightly to 82 degrees on Saturday and Sunday and can expect more low 80s heading into next week.
So far, June’s daytime highs are averaging four degrees below normal – 82.6 compared to 86.7, says the weather service. That comes after a coolish May with daytime highs averaging three degrees below normal (77.2 compared to 80.3).
While daytime temperatures remain on the cool side, we’re staying relatively warm after dark with overnight lows in the mid 50s. June’s average lows are barely below normal, averaging 55.2 degrees (compared to our historic average of 55.9). That helps soil retain its warmth and keeps summer vegetables growing fast.
Coupled with these mild days, this is ideal weather for rapid development in the vegetable garden. Light breezes should help pollinate tomatoes. Bees and other pollinators love this weather, too; setting new squash and melons shouldn’t be a problem either.
The key will be water. No rain is anywhere in our forecast, so irrigate these fast-growing veggies deeply at least once or twice a week.
Also benefiting from cooler weather: Spring and early summer flowers. Expect our bloom season to continue with big flourishes of roses and lilies.
On the minus side, lots of insects love these mild but warm temperatures. Watch out for explosions of aphids, whiteflies and spider mites.
Also enjoying these days in the 70s: Powdery mildew. Snip off and dispose of infected foliage.
This cool streak is unlikely to last – this is summer in Sacramento. The last June without at least one triple-digit day: 1998.
Our current weather pattern is similar to 2009, notes forecasters. That June also started out with below-average temperatures, but got hot in a hurry; Sacramento hit 108 degrees on June 28 that year.
Long-range predictions for July 2023 say Sacramento will be typically hot and maybe a notch above normal. Forecasters expect the month to average highs of 94 degrees; normal is 92.
For more on Sacramento forecasts: https://www.weather.gov/sto/.
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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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