Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 14

This mid-September week comes with a warm reminder: It’s still summer (at least for a few more days).

And this coming week will feel like it. According to the National Weather Service, Sacramento is in for a warming trend, starting Monday. After several days in the 80s, we’re head back to the upper 90s, peaking on Tuesday and Wednesday at an expected 97 degrees – well above average (90 degrees) for these dates.

But this heat won’t stick around long. Friday’s forecast is a comfortable 88 degrees with temperatures trending down from there.

Overnight lows will remain warm – above 60 degrees all week. That keeps soil warm, too; that’s excellent for new transplants and will get fall veggies off to a fast start.

In the meantime, get out early and enjoy pleasant morning temperatures. There’s plenty to do:

* Now is the time to plant for fall. The warm soil will get these veggies off to a fast start.

* 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.

* Keep harvesting tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant. Pull plants that have stopped performing.

* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.

* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.

* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.

* 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.