Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 22
Happy autumn equinox! Sunday is the official first day of fall, but it will feel more like mid-summer. (That recent cool weather was just a pre-fall tease.)
According to the National Weather Service, Sunday’s high in Sacramento will be in the mid 90s. By Monday, we’ll be flirting with 100.
The high heat won’t stick around but the weather will still be warm, with afternoon highs of 90 degrees forecast for downtown Sacramento on Wednesday and Thursday. That’s still five degrees above average for late September in Sacramento.
The good news: Warm soil is great for planting and rapid root development. Wait until after Tuesday’s peak for any transplanting, then keep seedlings irrigated. With this weather, they’ll grow fast!
* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant. Some tomatoes and peppers may stretch their harvest into October or November.
* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing. If you see no new fruit on your tomatoes, pull them out.
* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.
* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.
* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.
* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.
* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.
* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.
* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.
* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.
* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with “eyes” about an inch below the soil surface.
* Late September is ideal for sowing a new lawn or re-seeding bare spots.
