Mulching helps, too, says Mark Mercier, nursery manager for G&G Nursery and Landscaping. A four- to six-inch layer of bark or rock around the base of a plant will help keep soil cooler and slow evaporation.

Lawns
For lawns, August means cutting back fertilizer, or using only a low nitrogen or slow release formula. Use a high nitrogen formula or a quick release liquid and you'll be up to your knees in grass in no time. "Put down something that's going to release instantly in midsummer and in three days you'll have five inches of new grass and a lot of mowing," says Mercier. That's not good for the grass.

That manicured, golf-course look of early spring can damage your lawn in August when it needs more depth to shade the roots from the sun. (The exception is any type of grass that grows short anyway.) August is a good time to take a break from mowing. Mercier advises letting your grass get up to three inches in midsummer.

Roses
Roses especially don't like getting their leaves wet and if they get sprayed at night when the wind calms down and there are cooler conditions, they can fall prey to powdery mildew.

"It thrives in dry air," says Mercier, admitting this sounds completely wrong for mildew. "And roses are extremely susceptible. Wet leaves from evening watering coupled with poor air circulation because the winds die down – these are perfect breeding grounds for powdery mildew."

For roses, fertilizing is important through fall but you want to stop anything with nitrogen at the end of August. That's enough for that last flush of flowers and to ensure 2 there's no new growth that an early frost can kill. Roses need to stop growing and harden for winter. You can continue giving them potassium to aid stem development and winter survival, and phosphorous to keep roots and flowers healthy, right up until the first freeze.

Blooming perennials
As with roses, fertilizing late in August can cause a burst of new growth on flowering plants, growth which may be damaged in an early frost, says Darley Jeppson, horticulture assistant, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.

Flowers, trees and shrubs don't need any fertilizer with nitrogen at this point. They've already expended a lot of energy in the spring and early summer with flushes of flowers and now they're getting ready for winter. In fact, they have been ever since the days started getting shorter at the summer solstice.

Trees and shrubs
Depending on the species, 1 August is the time to deep-irrigate established trees (five years or older) with a drip line every 10 to 14 days, and do the same for shrubs every seven to 10 days. Water to the width of the canopy, and get a uniform soil moisture to eight inches or more deep. (Most of the roots you're trying to water are in the top 12 inches of the soil.)

Jeppson recommends hosing down foliage occasionally, too. Evergreens as well as oaks, maples and sycamores can be hosed down in late afternoon so the leaves dry before evening.

"The moisture you provide the plant will help re-hydrate it after hot, dry, dusty afternoons and wash off debris or dust or even spider mites and the sticky secretion aphids leave behind if you had a problem with them early in the season," says Jeppson. She even recommends hosing off the leaves of roses, as long as it's done not in the heat of the day but an hour or two before sunset. "Doing it in the late afternoon can even help prevent powdery mildew from taking hold and eliminate it by washing it off," Jeppson says.

Jennifer R Baumer is a northern
Nevada freelance writer.