Southampton - It's been a pretty tough summer for plants in our Hamptons gardens. The relentless heat and humidity of July have taken a toll. Is your garden looking a little shabby about now? Do your pots seem pooped? A little TLC can freshen up your plants and spruce up the garden for the remainder of the warm weather (which can last well into autumn for us). Here are some beauty treatments you can use to rejuvenate your tired plants.

Daylily before cleanup. (Anne Halpin)

 • Pull The Weeds: It may seem obvious, but getting rid of the weeds will go a long way to improving your garden's looks. If you haven't got much time, try to pull weeds for just 10 minutes a day, but do it every day. You'll make real progress, and it'll show. Start with the most visible areas first - along the main walkways, in the front of garden beds and borders closest to the house. Pots and planters, too.

 • Feed The Plants: Whether they're growing in pots or in the ground, your plants will appreciate a nutritional boost. I like organics, and use liquid fish/seaweed fertilizers for a quick pick-me-up for plants. If you make your own compost, side-dress garden plants with it. Or, make your own compost tea and water with that. (The time-honored way to make compost tea is to shovel some finished compost into a burlap sack and set it into a bucket of water overnight until the water turns nice and brown. Then dilute it by half and use it to water plants. Compost tea is best used right away). If you use fertilizers in bags or boxes, follow the package directions for application rates and times.

 • Stake Floppy Plants: Tall plants like dahlias, lilies and garden phlox may need staking to help them stand up straight. If your plants are floppy, give them some support. Use slender bamboo canes for single stems, or green metal hoops or loop stakes for bushier plants.

 • Clean Up The Plants: A key to keeping flowering plants looking their best is to "deadhead" them - remove the spent flowers. Annuals and some perennials will continue blooming if you regularly remove the old flowers. Generally, if the plant is bushy and branching, you can cut back the old flower stems to just above a leaf or set of leaves lower on the stem, so you're not left with a long bare stem. If the plant sends up its flowers on individual stems above a low mound of leaves, cut each stem back to its base.

Daylily after cleanup - see how much better it looks! (Anne Halpin)

 • Boost The Color Level: Most perennials bloom for three to six weeks. If your garden is looking mostly green, pop in some annuals for extra shots of color. You can set potted plants in among the perennials, too.

 • Add An Ornament: A new focal point can create interest when flowers are few and far between. If you've got a beautiful glazed ceramic pot, or a birdbath or a small piece of sculpture in a quiet corner of the garden, move it to a more prominent place.

Here are some tips on giving some favorite perennials a new lease on life:

 • Astilbe: You can leave the dried-out seedheads on the plants all winter if you like that look. If you don't, cut off the old flower stems at the lowest set of leaves.

 • Coreopsis Grandiflora: Regular deadheading keeps the plant blooming. Cut old flower stems back to foliage at the base of the plant. Threadleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) is very time consuming to deadhead because it bears lots of flowers on very thin stems. Instead, shear back the entire plant with hedge shears right about now, and it can reward you with another round of flowers in fall.

 • Purple Coneflower (Echinacea): Remove old flowers, cutting back to the next set of leaves. Stop deadheading in September to leave seedheads for migrating finches and other birds to enjoy. But be warned: plants can self-sow and spread themselves around.

 • Daylily (Hemerocallis): Each flower lasts just one day, but each stem produces several of them in succession. When the last flower is finished, cut the stem back to the base. The small Stella de Oro and Returns hybrids will continue producing new flowering stems until fall. If your daylilies have dry, brown leaves, pull them off and the plants will look a whole lot better.

 • Hosta: Cut off the old flower stems at the base to tidy up the plants.

 • Nepeta, Or Catmint: The plants may look disheveled when the flowers fade. Shear them back lightly to clean them up. They may reward you with some new flowers.

 • Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia): You can leave the seedheads in place after the flowers are gone, for the birds to eat. However, many of those seeds will fall to the ground and start new plants. If you don't deadhead at all, black-eyed Susans will take over your garden in a few years.

 • Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum): Deadheading can keep shastas blooming for many weeks. Cut back the old flower stem to the next leaf on the stem, or where you see new small buds forming. When all these lateral buds have finished blooming, cut back the stems to the base, where you should see new growth.

When you've got the garden all cleaned up, set out your lounge chair and get a glass of tea or wine, and get ready to enjoy the beginning of fall in your garden - the most beautiful of all seasons here on the East End.