• Keep deadheading flowers as they fade; not only will the plants look better, but if they're allowed to produce and shed their seeds, they're more likely to stop producing new blooms.  
  
  
• In areas with mild winters and longer growing seasons, annuals should have another feeding of fertilizer in late summer.

• Deadhead spent blooms before they have a chance to seed.
• Dahlias are probably getting leggy right about now; if so, support them with stakes.
• Iris and other early-blooming perennials can still be divided this month and even into September. Choose a cool day or time of day, and give them a tall drink of water in their new locations.
• If you're gardening in a mild climate, fertilize roses once again this mont.

• Water deeply once a week (more often during scorching dry spells) for an hour at a shot.
• Raise the cutting height on your mower to keep grass longer, conserving water and helping roots stay cool.
• If water is scarce, consider letting your lawn go dormant, and reduce watering to once a month. It may look a little scrappy, but that glowing green hue will return with fall rains.
• Wildflower seeds tend to be ripe by late summer, so if you have a meadow to mow, this is a good month to hop on the tractor.

• Water evaporates quickly on sunny days, so water early in the morning to give plants a head start.
• Make a frequent check of flowers and vegetables for their watering needs. Generally, you'll want to give them about an inch of water each week; deep, less frequent watering is better for them than frequent surface watering.
• Add a light layer of mulch around young plants to help their roots retain water.
• If you're keeping a green lawn, give it an inch of water once a week or slightly more often.
• Check hanging baskets and container plants every day in hot weather.

• Early in the month, plant seeds in the ground for fall and winter vegetables such as spinach, radishes, scallions, carrots, and lettuces.
• There's still time to transplant greens such as kale and collards, broccoli, cauliflower, and early cabbage.
• Container plants, including perennials, trees, and shrubs, can be put in the ground now.
• Plant crocus bulbs for delicate splashes of fall color.
• Order fall bulbs for planting.

• Slugs will tend to be more abundant now due to extra watering; plant saucers of stale beer around the garden, especially around mulched areas (a favorite slug hiding place) and near tender greens.
• At first notice of aphids, hose-blast them off of leaves or spray them with an insecticidal soap.

Prune hybrid roses late in the month.

Cut back lavender once it has finished flowering.

Pinch back tomato plants for a higher yield.

Prune raspberries after the last harvest: Cut out old flowering canes, leaving shoot tips and three or four younger canes per foot of raspberry row.

Harvest

To avoid giving pests a free lunch, pick fruits and vegetables as soon as they're ripe.

• It's apple-pickin' time! Early apples should be ready to pick this month.
• Garlic and onions can generally be harvested now; pick them when you notice their dry tops beginning to fall over, and let them air-dry.
• Harvest raspberries, which should be producing the last of their fruit this month.
• Tomatoes and melons should be harvested as soon as they're ripe, before pests have a chance to dig in.

Before you head out for your Lake Minnehaha vacation, move plants out of direct sunlight, especially those in south-facing windows.

Check the undersides of leaves for aphid clusters and send them to their doom with an appropriate insecticide.

Flowering houseplants should be pruned after flowers fade; make cuts directly above leaf joints.

• Take cuttings of geraniums.
• Give tomatoes plenty of water and food.