Your Thoughts Have Turned to Vacation, but Don't Go Until You've Done These Chores

· Butterflies are emerging and actively seeking nectar and mates. They will wow you from now until fall.

If you failed to plant any butterfly-attracting plants this year, find mature ones, like already-blooming hanging baskets or large container-grown specimens, at garden centers. Keep them in the sun, watered and fertilized with water-soluble nutrients every other watering.

Look for verbena, purple coneflower, lantana, butterfly weed ( Asclepias tub erosa), velvet sage ( Salvia leucantha) or any other salvia that's in bloom, butterfly bush, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, cosmos, zinnia, and other long-blooming plants that will provide nectar for butterflies. These "flying flowers" will feed well into fall.

· Pull weeds when they're small, before they multiply. Every time you pass the beds, pluck a few. Do it while they're young, and many weeds will never self-sow enough to become a major problem. Those that spread by rhizomes that break off in the soil when you pull them and grow back into colonies within days, such as nutsedge, need a little more attention.

If they're too invasive to pull by hand, a control I have used is glyphosate, sold under the names Kleeraway Grass & Weed Killer and Roundup. These nonselective herbicides will kill any plant they contact. You can't use them on the lawn or the leaves of any ornamental plants. Read and follow labeled instructions. Use sparingly.

If you prefer natural weed control, there is an information-packed Web site organized by the Northern Environmental Action Team: http://www.prrrdy.com/garden-weeds.php.

Vinegar has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency as a nonselective weed control. Use white vinegar off the grocery shelf, undiluted. Be sure to use a plastic sprayer because vinegar is quite corrosive.

Another weed control is mulch, which is any material that can be laid on your beds to act as a protective covering. It reduces evaporation, prevents erosion, controls weeds and can enrich the soil. Spread compost, straw, salt hay, ground corncobs, pine bark nuggets, shredded hardwood bark, licorice root, wood chips, newspaper, landscape fabric or stone.

I prefer organic, partially composted materials. Get organic material from your compost pile or buy it in the form of Leafgro at the garden center or from a county or municipal program. If possible, lightly cultivate the compost into the soil. Nature will do the rest.

Free mulch and compost can be a little raw and contain weed seeds. You might want to finish composting it on your property and not use it until fall.