Give your plants a good watering.

• Watering chores are what will eat up your garden time this month. Remember the basics: Water in the early morning. Water the soil, not the leaves. Water deeply and occasionally rather than shallow and often.
• If mature plants are flopping, tie them up or use plant supports or stakes (criss-crossed like an X with ends inserted in the soil) to keep them upright and to prevent them from smothering neighboring plants.
• Halt fertilizing of roses in Zones 5, 6, and 7. It will encourage tender new growth that will get zapped this winter. Continue to fertilize roses in warmer regions.
• If an annual is struggling, at this point, just pull it up and pitch it.
• If a perennial is sickly or looking otherwise awful, cut it back to just a few inches. It will come back this year or next spring with healthier growth.
• If your lawn is turning brown, that's because it's gone dormant. You have two choices: Allow it to continue in its dormancy by not watering, or bring it out of dormancy with good, regular waterings. The one thing you won't want to do is to bring it out of dormancy repeatedly -- a very stressful situation for turf grass. If you're going to water, keep up with the watering.
• Continue to mow regularly, your best defense against weeds! If you haven't already, make sure you're mowing grass high -- not making it too short and "scalping" it, which damages the grass and opens up areas for weeds to germinate.
• Avoid pruning evergreens when it's so hot. And pruning them in the fall will encourage fresh new growth that may get nipped by winter's cold. It's best at this point to wait until next spring.

Vacations -- Going on vacation? Check out our great tips for keeping houseplants watered even when you're not there!

Vacations

Harvesting Vegetables -- Keep up with the harvest from your vegetable garden. Be sure to pick small and often. Tiny filet green beans, for example, need picking daily. Corn is ready when the tassels start to turn brown and a kernel, when pierced with a thumbnail, runs barely milky.

Harvesting Vegetables