Dig In: Garden checklist for week of July 20

Sweater weather in July? Well, not quite – but compared to typical July heat waves, we’ll enjoy these cooler-than-normal temperatures.

According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento can expect a string of afternoons in the mid 80s this coming week. Monday and Tuesday (July 21 and 22) are expected to top out at only 83 and 82 degrees – about 10 degrees lower than average for those dates.

Overnight lows will dip down into the mid 50s and mornings will be refreshingly cool, mostly in the 60s and low 70s. (Yes, you may even want to grab a light sweater.)

Make the most of this mid-summer cooldown and get stuff done!

* 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.

* Feed vegetable plants bone meal or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting.

* Add some summer color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

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

* 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.