Some gardeners long for fall around this time, others are relishing in the bounty both a vegetable and flower garden provides. Keeping up with maintenance during the hottest month will assure both the health of your garden next spring and a shorter to do list for fall.

Staying on top of your weeding—this month especially—will deter new weeds from seeding themselves, allowing fewer of them to propagate next year. Keep on track, and in a few years, the dreaded task of weeding will become smaller.

Stay on top of the deadheading too, to keep perennial gardens and annual pots looking their best. Pick-off old, spent flowers to allow for healthy new growth and buds to form. Keeping up on this task forces ever-bearing plants to keep producing flowers. And if you have a perennial that is just plain unruly, pinching it's flower heads prevents it from seeding and out-competes the other plants in your garden.

Harvest time is certainly the most rewarding season for vegetable growers. Harvest ripened vegetables like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and herbs.

If you live in a zone suitable for fall gardening, now’s the time to get things started. As days get cooler, kale, lettuce, arugula, radicchio, collards, kohlrabi, green onions, mustard greens, beans, peas, beets, radishes, broccoli, parsnips, cauliflower and spinach to name a few. Sow seeds directly into the ground, cover them and keep them soaked to encourage sprouting (or start them in seed starting kits).

For shrubs and trees that are still going strong, provide deep drinks of water, especially in hot climates. August's sun will evaporate any light watering efforts, leaving little benefit to the plant.