Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Dec. 22

This week will feel like Santa sent us a whole lot of rain as three separate storm systems flow over Northern California – with a fourth close behind.

Saturday (Dec. 21), the shortest day of the year, also is the first official day of winter. If this week is any indication, it could be a very wet season.

According to the National Weather Service, a series of three storms in four days will march across the Sacramento Valley, headed to the Sierra. Saturday’s showers started the soggy barrage followed by a second storm Sunday and a third arriving Monday night. That last system may be the strongest, delivering up to an inch of rain on Tuesday, Christmas Eve.

Right now, the forecast for Christmas Day (Wednesday) looks partly sunny and dry, with a high of 54 degrees in Sacramento. But by Thursday morning, another storm will arrive with more rain also forecast for Friday.

Get more Sacramento-area weather updates here: https://www.weather.gov/sto/#

Between showers this week, check on your garden’s welfare. Clean up fallen branches and other debris. Don’t let water pool near foundations.

When working (or just walking) in the garden, be careful of soggy ground; it can compact easily. Soggy soil also will rot newly planted bulbs. Wait until the soil is moist but not dripping wet.

* Rake leaves away from storm drains and gutters. Recycle those leaves as mulch or add to compost.

* Brighten the holidays with winter bloomers such as poinsettias, amaryllis and cyclamen indoors, and Iceland poppies, calendulas, pansies and primroses outdoors.

* Keep poinsettias in a sunny, warm location; bring them inside at night or if there’s rain. (They don’t like cold, wet weather.)

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while they’re dormant.

* Clean and sharpen garden tools before storing for the winter.

* Rake and remove dead leaves and stems from dormant perennials.

* Seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Once soil dries out a little, trees and shrubs can be planted now, especially bare-root varieties such as fruit trees or rose bushes. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from winter rains.

* Plant bare-root berries, kiwifruit, grapes, artichokes, horseradish and rhubarb.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.