Water your plants, squirt their pots to help them avoid heat stroke

Your potted plants are little heat islands that need cooling down in the summer.

They're one of the things needing attention in the garden during August.

Just like developed urban areas where the temperature is higher than in open space, your pots, especially those in the sun, heat up their contents.

Like concrete, blacktops and other hard surfaces, any pot will heat up during the day and take a long time to cool down at night, says gardening adviser Phil Seader.

That leaves the plant in soil that's hotter than ground soil. And that causes plants to use more water as they try to cool off both their above-ground foliage and their heated roots, says Seader, who works for Green Things nursery.

"This is a real problem with people who have drip irrigation on pots or pots in full sun," he says.

He suggests watering down pots as well as the plants inside them. Do it at least once a day and preferably twice daily.

If you can stand the heat, here are a few more things to do in the garden or yard.

MORE WATERING

• Don't change the frequency or amount of drip irrigation unless you get three or four consecutive days of rain.

• Make sure irrigation emitters for a tree are on the circumference of the outer branches, known as the dripline. Use a hose to add more water in this area.

• Irrigate cactus once a week.

• Spray wilted plants with water. "Hose watering will cool them down instantly," says Seader.

TRIMMING

• Tomato plants look spent in August, but they'll bounce back and produce fruit when the temperature cools in September. Cut back the dead parts so the plants are compact. Continue to water.

• Any damaged plants with dead parts will bounce back if you trim them back into the green, living areas. "Taking off dead growth will spur new growth in a couple of days," Seader says.

GROWING

• August's warm soil makes it a good time to plant citrus trees, which will get three or more months of growing before the first frost.

• Sow seeds now for cool-weather flowers such as pansies, petunias, snapdragons, stock and Iceland poppies. Put seeds in pots in shaded areas such as the porch or indoors. They'll grow enough to be transplanted into the ground in September.

Putting the seeds into the ground works, too, especially if sown among the still-flowering summer annuals. If you water adequately, you can get a blend of summer and winter annuals from September through November.

"A lot of people just never have an empty garden," says Seader. "This way it transitions all the time."