Can I help you a little today? Today's puzzle — "beat the heat" - is a misleading touch to my eyes, but the words themselves are not difficult to find if you have a link.

Below we've compiled some useful tips for Strand#98 and the answer to that. We'll start with a few clues before building the full answer for Strand #98, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers are ahead for Strand #98.  

The official theme of NYT Strand #98 is:.. "How to grow!"

And here's an unofficial tip from me: "'Green finger."

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give those valuable clue tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram will give you tips about connecting words. Today, it starts with 'G' and ends with 'N'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's a garden.

So what is Strand's answer today for game #98

Drumroll, please...

...And the spangram was a garden.

[98]

" How to grow!"

🟡🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🔵🔵

hi chain. It's pretty simple today. The theme is "How to Grow!""Immediately made me think of plants and gardening, and sure enough, I saw a (very short) spangram - a garden - spread from left to right, in the middle of the board.

Just below the spangram, in the same direction was sunlight, and beneath it was space. Completing the bottom of the board is the earth, and taken together, these three things suggest the elements that green-fingered individuals need to thrive in the garden.

As it became clear, I looked for water in the upper right corner and there was a seed to the left of it. The next one - love - is a bit sparse, but it helped to publish the last word and many longest answers: protection.

Some of those words felt a little stretch on the theme, but we're there. Hopefully, tomorrow's puzzles will be the right kind of puzzling.

Are you reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article of yesterday's Strand answer for game #97 right here.