Divide spring- and early-summer-blooming perennials and replant promptly to give them time to reestablish before winter, but wait until after the torrid midday period to dig. Water well. With long-taproot plants like platycodon, asclepias (butterfly weed) and columbine, attempt separation only if you see two or more plants growing close together - and take extra care not to damage roots.

Order spring-blooming bulbs from catalogs; since choicer varieties may be out, give alternate choices or order by phone.

Cut back dried stalks and past-their-prime parts of perennials and add to the compost pile, along with plants from the vegetable plot that have finished bearing. Scrounge dry material for compost piles overflowing with green matter such as clippings from still-rampant grass. Too much green means stinky anaerobic rotting. If desperate, a bale of straw (fewer seeds than hay) or shredded newspaper will help. Turn the pile to get air in.

Cut back rangy annuals, rejuvenating them for more bloom. Deadhead buddleia (butterfly bush). The plant will look nicer with the removal of finished flower spikes, the next flush of bloom will be enhanced, and, most important, you'll prevent seedlings of a shrub that has propagated itself onto the list of invasive exotics.

Seed a new lawn - or overseed one that needs renewal. Weed the area, then prepare the soil by loosening to a depth of 3 inches, amending as necessary with compost and lime. After sowing, do not allow to dry out. In sunny areas, a light layer of straw is recommended (it will decompose).

Plant garlic cloves and sow spinach, radish, and lettuce seed. Garlic prefers sandy soil.

Go after crabgrass and stilt grass (many-branched, with miniature bamboo-like leaves). These annuals are on the verge of dropping seeds. In the lawn, crabgrass cannot be mowed low enough to prevent seeding, so dig by hand. Repeatedly mowed stilt grass will not set seed. In beds, borders, naturalized areas, and the edges of lawns, both can get prodigious; stilt grass is easy to pull, not so crabgrass, but weed it you must.

Seek out bargains on lawnmowers or other major seasonal equipment as retailers- cue the dirge music - make way for snowblowers.

Ponder the oddities this summer has presented, both desirable and otherwise. No dragging of hoses or inflated water bills! Songbirds continuing to lay eggs and raise broods into August. Late-summer repeat blooms on epimedium and sweetbay magnolia. September-style "good sleeping weather" throughout July. The promise of bountiful daffodil blooms next year, since the foliage persisted, and built bulb strength, an extra month. The smallest Japanese beetle population in long memory. And valuable lessons on where not to grow good-drainage-essential plants.

- Michael Martin Mills