Now is a good time to prune early summer flowering shrubs like Philadelphus, Deutzia, Wiegela, and Rubus as they have finished flowering. Pruning will encourage new shoots to spring up from the base, and if you cut out about one in three of the thickest old branches at the bottom, these new ones will take their place and ensure the flowering doesn’t decrease.

As with all shrubs when you’ve pruned, lightly fork in some pelleted chicken manure or balanced fertiliser – such as Growmore – around the base, water well and mulch with some compost or well-rotted manure to give the plant a real boost. Don’t touch the stems with the mulch or they could start to rot.

Try your hand at taking cuttings from perennial herbs such as Lavender, Rosemary and Sage. Take the cuttings early in the day and choose non-flowering side-shoots that are soft at the tip and woody at the base – about 10cm long. Pull away from the main stem, gently leaving a little bit of the bark still attached – these are called ‘heel’ cuttings. Take off the lower 5cm of leaves from the stem, dip the end into hormone rooting powder (garden centres have this) and then insert several of these cuttings into a small pot of gritty compost. Firm them in and water well, then cover the whole pot with a plastic bag (ensuring it doesn’t touch any of the leaves), label and place somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight. The cuttings should have rooted by late August.

Spare a thought for the owners of the gardens open in the National Garden Scheme – imagine all the work they have to do to prepare for visitors! I was thinking about this the other day and asked myself if I had 20 minutes to do something to tidy up my garden before visitors arrived, what would be the tasks to do?

I would plump with weeding the front 10cm of the border leaving bare earth, cutting the grass and trimming the edges. Obviously, some of you have more garden than me and this would take an hour or two, but it is the equivalent of a quick vacuum up and spraying polish around in the house – it really looks more than the time it takes, and you can ignore the back of the border especially at this time of year when it is probably full to bursting with luxurious growth, unless you have the time.