Plant this Turning a sunny border into a nectar bar for pollinators? If your soil is thin and not very fertile, don’t fight it – plant the perennial blue globe thistle (Echinops bannaticus) instead. It flowers through summer, each electric-blue flower a magnet for bees and butterflies. Height and spread: 1.5m x 75cm.
Count this At a time when insect numbers are declining, taking part in the Big Butterfly Count helps gauge how butterflies are doing and plan how to protect them. Download the identification chart from bigbutterflycount.org, then find a sunny 15 minutes to do your count between 20 July and August 12.
Feed this Reward roses with a feed now the first flush of flowers is over. Use a specialist fertiliser such as Neudorff’s organic rose and shrub food. Deadhead flowers over the hill to encourage fresh blooms and remove foliage with signs of blackspot, a fungal disease that shows up as black blotches.
