Upon returning home from a week of summer vacation camping, you might find the garden looking a bit ragged. Suddenly beds need weeding, flowers deadheading, the yard watering. August is the month for giving your yard a second chance. Here’s what you can do now to make your garden sparkle through late fall.

Prune and groom — Faded flowers and ragged foliage on annuals and perennials should be cut back now. Perennials like nepeta, coreopsis, cranesbill geraniums and a variety of salvias perform well when sheared back midseason. Groom and deadhead annuals like snapdragons, marigolds and bedding dahlias to keep them flowering until fall. Replant with fresh color, if necessary.

Plant vegetables — Replace spent summer vegetables with carrots, peas, onions, summer squash, salad greens, beets, turnips, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Plant these crops now and you will harvest fresh vegetables on a regular basis for most of the winter. Continue harvesting peas, summer squash and green beans for maximum yield. Consider donating excess produce to local food banks and soup kitchens.

Spray — Check plants often for signs of powdery mildew. Susceptible plants include roses, dahlias, tuberous begonias, cucumber and squash vines and snap peas. Spray with a homemade, nontoxic brew made up of 2 teaspoons baking soda and 2 teaspoons horticultural summer oil mixed in 1 gallon of water. Remove mildew afflicted foliage and then thoroughly spray new leaves.

Feed — Begonias, fuchsias, roses, pelargoniums, containerized plants and newly planted garden vegetables need continuous summer feeding. If you haven’t fed them lately, now is the time to do it. Give azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons their final feeding this month.

Plant more — Plant alyssum, violas, calendulas, pansies and Iceland poppies later this month if you want colorful beds and pots during the fall and winter. For quick color, choose blooming marigolds, New Guinea impatiens, tuberous begonias and marguerite daisies. This is also a good month to sow perennial seeds.

Water — August is one of our driest months. Shrubs, trees and perennial flower beds need to be watered deeply on a regular basis. Use soaker hoses, or drip irrigation, if you’ve no time for lugging the hose about.

Terry Kramer is a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. She is a violinist in the Eureka Symphony, and teaches violin.