In The Flower Garden
- Deadhead flowers of lady’s mantle before they set seed
- Water camellias to make sure they don’t dry out while the flower buds are developing
- Buy bulbs for autumn planting including tulips, narcissus, alliums, iris and crocus
- Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants
- Collect seed from any flowers you fancy propagating
- Trap earwigs among dahlias with upside-down pots stuffed with straw and balanced on canes
- Pick leaves off plants affected by rose blackspot
- Trim conifer hedges and evergreen hedges, cutting their tops back to the desired height
- Clear bedding that has passed its best and plant out forget-me-nots and wallflowers
- Tidy up fading perennials and make compost with the trimmings
In the Fruit and Vegetable Garden
- Pick plums as they ripen
- Ease onions from the soil with a fork to prepare them for harvesting
- Finish pruning trained forms of apple trees like cordons, espaliers and fans
- Water crops regularly, especially during hot weather
- Lift marrows into the sunshine and rest them on bricks to ripen
- Identify plants showing symptoms of potato blight, and immediately remove affected leaves and stems
- Order garlic bulbs and onion sets for autumn planting
- Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
- Net blackberries and autumn-fruiting raspberries
- Veg to sow now include swedes, spring cabbages, beetroot for leaves, winter lettuces, radishes, coriander, Japanese onions
In The Greenhouse
- Plant prepared hyacinth bulbs in special hyacinth vases (available at garden centres) or in pots of bulb fibre
- Sow parsley in modular trays
- Water crops in growing bags and pots
- Open vents each day, but close them at night if the weather turns cold
- Place poinsettias in the total dark for 14 hours a day to encourage colourful bracts to form, moving into full light for the rest of the day
- Water indoor cyclamen after their summer rest to encourage new growth
- Plant lachenalia and veltheimia bulbs
- Pick off the lower leaves from tomatoes to allow light and air to reach the fruits
Generally
- Pick off leaves infected by rose blackspot or rose rust, and dispose of them in your dustbin and not on the compost heap
- Set up an automatic watering system with a drip nozzle for potted plants if you’re going on holiday
- Top up water levels in ponds and aquatic features
- Scoop water weed from ponds with a small net
- Remove suckers from roses or around the base of trees
- Summer prune wisteria by shortening all long sideshoots
- Stake dahlias and late-flowering chrysanthemums
- Trim privet, laurel, conifers and other hedges
- Mow lawns every week
- Apply lawn feed to promote strong root growth and prepare the grass for winter
Capturing Earwigs
