Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Aug. 24

It’s August, it’s hot. What did you expect?

The triple-digit heat wave we knew would eventually come has finally arrived. Friday (Aug. 22) was Sacramento’s hottest day of 2025 at 103 degrees – well below August’s all-time record of 112 but still toasty.

According to the National Weather Service, this weekend’s high temperatures will continue to flirt with 100, with a heat advisory in effect through Saturday night. Warm nights with overnight lows in the mid to upper 60s mean mornings will be warm, too.

But by Wednesday, overnight lows will cool off and so will afternoon highs. Wednesday’s forecast high in Sacramento is 91 degrees – average for late August in Sacramento.

During this last week of August, stay hydrated – and start planning for fall.

* 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. (Always water before fertilizing.)

* 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. (Soak beet seeds overnight for better germination.)

* Plant potatoes.

* If you haven’t already, feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give 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? Feed them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* 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.