The fall garden should be planted soon
During early August, plant short-season snap beans, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, carrots, mustard greens, spinach and radishes for fall harvesting.
Continue to harvest herbs by either snipping foliage, drying entire sprigs or plants, or freezing individual portions in ice-cube trays. Pinch off developing flowers to retain essential oils and flavor in the plants' foliage.
• Continue to groom your perennials and annuals by removing yellowing foliage and spent flowers. Make note of perennials that have flopped and need staking so a support system can be installed next spring before the plants need it.
Gentle pruning of more vigorous perennials to provide some space for adjacent plants can help keep your border from looking overgrown. Cutting leaves off at the base can reduce the size of the plants without having them look pruned.
You may want to let certain dried flowers on plants such as astilbe and coneflower remain standing for fall and winter interest. Goldfinches visit my coneflowers in fall and eat the seeds.
• Even though some parts of Chicago have gotten some good rain recently, it is a good idea to continue to monitor and provide supplemental water to plants installed over the last couple of years with a focus on plants installed this year. Older, more established trees and shrubs will be OK without extra water.
Make sure the root balls of evergreen trees planted within the last year or two are thoroughly moistened when watering. Densely branched evergreen trees can shed water from rain or a sprinkler away from the root ball so that it remains dry while the soil in the bed is moist. Apply water to the base of these trees.
Large balled and burlapped trees and shrubs may need supplemental watering by garden hose even if a sprinkler system is being used to water the garden. Monitor the soil moisture at the base of these plants to make sure they are being watered adequately.
• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.