Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 17

For a few more days, Sacramento will enjoy unusually mild temperatures – at least by mid-August standards.

According to the National Weather Service, the afternoon high temperature for Sunday (Aug. 17) in Sacramento will be a mere 82 degrees – 10 degrees below normal for that date. A storm system (and clouds) passing over Northern California will keep temperatures relatively low through Tuesday. Thunderstorms are forecast for the Sierra and northern sections of the Sacramento Valley (and could spark wildfires), but don’t expect to see any rain drops in our neighborhood.

Instead, we’ll have a few days of ideal weather for outdoor activities (including gardening).

Enjoy this respite; it won’t last long. By Thursday (maybe even Wednesday), more typical high August heat will return. The weather service expects Sacramento to hit 100 on Thursday and Friday.

Keep your garden hydrated (especially new seedlings and transplants) – and get to work.

* 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 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. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* 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, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. (Hint:  Soak the beet seeds overnight before planting.)

* Plant potatoes.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias, annuals and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Give citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will provide a boost to the fruit that’s now forming.

* 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.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then give fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.