Dig In: Garden checklist for week of July 9

Consider this weekend a window of opportunity. If you need to tackle some outdoor chores, do it now. Because triple-digit heat is returning soon – just in time for the California State Fair.

According to the National Weather Service, the Sacramento region will stretch its streak of below-normal temperatures through Monday; that will make seven consecutive days in the 80s. Our normal high for mid July: 95 degrees.

But this respite will end Tuesday when highs are expected to jump into the high 90s. The weather service predicts 101 degrees for Friday, the State Fair’s opening day.

Make the most of these relatively cool days – especially in the mornings when temperatures will be in the 70s.

* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.

* Water, then fertilize vegetables and blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs to give them a boost. Feeding flowering plants every other week will extend their bloom.

* Don’t let tomatoes dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.

* 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.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.

* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.

* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.

* It’s not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers.