1. Vegetable Garden: The timing always feels a bit strange, but this is actually the month to renew your vegetable garden for the fall harvest season. From seed, plant snap and lima beans, sweet corn, Swiss chard, cucumbers, summer and winter squash (my favorite), black-eyed peas, okra, cantaloupe, pumpkin and watermelon. For transplants, it’s the right time for tomatoes and peppers.

2. Tomatoes: Be sure to plant determinate varieties with reputations for heat survival. (Spot the clues in t...