To help your plants cope with the hot, dry conditions, make sure they are mulched.  This helps hold moisture in the ground and cools the ground and roots.  It is also important to do deep watering.  Lay your hose near your plants and let water slowly trickle on them so that it soaks deeply into the ground.  This type of watering will last longer and does much more good than sprinkling the surface layer.

Now is a good time to check all of your plants that are staked.  Most plants do their main increase in the caliper of their stems and trunks in the fall.  It is very important to make sure that all the ties are loose enough to accommodate this growth without "strangling" the plant.  

Smaller plants who have suffered greatly in the heat might appreciate being cut back.  This will encourage them to re-grow and rejuvenate in the cooler fall weather.  Don't trim shrubs that are spring blooming, however, because they are making flower buds on this years wood for spring blooming.  Trimming them will remove your spring flowers.  They should be trimmed in the spring after their bloom period is over.

Trim back your roses and get ready to feed them gently after the first rain.  This will help get them in shape for fall blooming.  Trim off any spent flowers and prune back long stems and any that need to be removed to give the bush a good shape.  Be careful when fertilizing in the fall, so that you don't overfeed the plants.  Their growing season is almost over.

Put down pre-emergent weed preventer now.  With the first rains will come the first of the fall and winter weeds.  Applying weed preventer to your lawn and beds will help keep weeds from germinating. 

Sit in the cool and make plans for fall planting!  Cooler weather will come!