Dig In: Garden checklist for week of May 26

Squash seedlings will grow rapidly once the weather warms up. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

After so much rain, summer gardening hits high gear

By Debbie Arrington

How will your garden respond to all that rain?

Sacramento’s wettest May on record gave everything a thorough and deep watering. Most of the area received 3-plus inches, more than four times normal for the month.

All that extra (free) irrigation got most summer transplants off to an especially strong start. Meanwhile, cool weather – 10 degrees or more below normal temperatures – prolonged the season for many early spring vegetables such as snap peas and lettuce.

Your peppers and melons may have just been sitting there, but soon they’ll be kicking into high gear. Temperatures in the 80s are forecast by mid-week, and warmer summer weather patterns are on the way.

Tomato transplants already are growing rapidly and setting their first fruit. That may mean ripe tomatoes by July 4.

* Weed! Weed! Weed! That wet weather prompted millions of dormant weed seeds to sprout, and now those plants are growing rapidly. Pull or whack them while they’re young, and definitely before they set seed.

* It’s not too late to plant a summer garden including transplants of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Choose quick-maturing varieties.

Still plenty of time to plant melon seeds -- they'll grow rapidly

in more typical late spring temperatures. 

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. For faster flowers, transplant seedlings.

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and
perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Dead-head roses, pruning off spent flowers. The bush will re-bloom in six to eight weeks.