August

•    Keep plants well watered – especially containers and newly planted plants. August is often very hot and dry. Containers are still most likely going to need daily water.
•    Hire a waterer or rig up a timer and sprinkler (or drip-irrigation system) if you’re going away on vacation. This is especially important for containers and new plantings. Also hire a lawn-mowing pinch-hitter if you’ll be away for more than a week.
•    Scout for pest problems and treat as needed. This month watch for bagworms on evergreens; budworms on annuals; second generation of scale on euonymus; webworms on fruit trees; spider mites on spruce and other evergreens; scale on magnolia, and lacebugs on azaleas and pieris.
•    Continue deadheading spent annual flowers and trim off spent flower stalks of perennials after they bloom.
•    Pull weeds in beds and spot-spray for weeds in lawn. Do not feed or weed-‘n-feed the lawn this month, especially if the lawn has gone brown and dormant.
•    Harvest vegetables and replant space with beans, carrots, beets, cucumbers or fall plantings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spinach, lettuce, chard or radishes. Discard tomatoes and other plants infected with blight and other diseases.
•    New perennials, trees and shrubs can be planted so long as you keep them well watered.
•    Annuals melting out in the heat? Hide any key dead spots by moving a flower pot there. Or replace them mums or pansies to get you through the rest of the season.
•    Continue feeding aquatic plants and fish. Trim overgrown marginal plants and keep pond topped off.
•    Last chance to apply grub preventers such as Merit (imidacloprid) or Mach 2 (halofenozide) to head off this year’s crop of grubs, which begin hatching from beetle-laid eggs this month.
•    Last call to neaten hedges and evergreens with light prunings. Knock it off after this month.
•    Monitor lawns for chinch bug and sod webworm damage. Use lawn insecticide if needed.
•    Monitor junipers for phomopsis blight and lilacs, dogwoods, phlox, bee balm and other plants for powdery mildew. Treat as needed.
•   Stop fertilizing roses for the season after this month.
•    Continue spraying program for fruit trees (that haven’t yet been harvested) and roses.