Grass roots
Where you have bulbs, leave the grass as long as you can so that they get their full five weeks after they finished flowering to replenish their resources. Mowing a crisp border or even a path through the crass, to define order, will prevent it from feeling too scruffy.
Border patrol
In the borders, the June cutback is upon us. Early-flowering geraniums and their fellows that have already bloomed can be cut back hard. This will open up a temporary gap, but it will be filled with new foliage to keep the garden looking fresh. Oriental poppies are slow to return, as they have a period of semi-dormancy in summer, so plant out their gap with summer bedding. Pot-grown nicotiana, cosmos or sunflowers make great candidates for late summer. The poppies will push through in their shadow.
Staking out
If you haven’t done so already, stake tall plants and continue to tie in climbers, such as clematis and sweet pea. In my experience many will stall if they don’t have anywhere to climb.
Reap what you sow
I like to wait until early June to sow runner and climbing French beans. Coming from South America, they like the ground to be warm. The three-sisters method of growing sweetcorn as support for climbing beans, and gourds or courgettes as ground cover among them, puts together plants that like the same conditions.
Plant outdoor tomatoes in your sunniest spot. Growbags are great for those of us with just a balcony or a small terrace. Sow leafy vegetables in succession, half a row at a time rather than a whole, at fortnightly intervals. Pinch out broad bean tops to prevent them from getting blackfly once they come into flower. Eat the most succulent parts. Steam, then add salt and butter.
Perfect pruning
Shrubs that bloom in the first part of the growing season do so because they flower on last year’s wood. Keep them in good shape and looking youthful by removing whole limbs back to a new fresh growth. Forsythia, deutsia and philadelphus, now close to their moment of glory, are plants that fall into this category.
Cream of the crop
If you have it available, tuck the strawberries in with a quilt of straw placed carefully under the trusses before they ripen. It will save the fruit from being splashed by dirt. Net the bed before the birds get to the fruit. “Mara des Bois” is an ever-fruiting variety with an alpine heritage.
Late nights
Draw the long evenings out and improve an outdoor seating area with pots of night-scented nicotiana and night-scented stock. The tobacco plants will last all summer but although the stock are shortlived they can be sown on a monthly rotation.
