Dig In: Garden Checklist for week of Aug. 4

Give your developing citrus a last round of fertilizer. (Photo by Kathy Morrison)

After triple-digit weekend, make most of cool-down

By Debbie Arrington

Early August weather can feel like someone’s playing with the thermostat: Blazing hot one day, then suddenly 10 degrees cooler the next.

This week illustrates that pattern with triple-digit temperatures predicted for this weekend, before dipping back into the 80s by Thursday.

What’s average for August in Sacramento? According to the National Weather Service, it’s “only” 91 degrees for highs and 58 for overnight lows.

Here’s what should be on your August to-do list:

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants deeply before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. After irrigating, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help plants set fruit.

* 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.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that's now forming.

* 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, bush beans, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. Plant potatoes.