It should be safe by now to plant out your Summer Bedding Plants and put up your hanging baskets. Some of the tender herbs such as Basil and French Tarragon can now also be planted outdoors.
In the veg garden earth up the soil around emerging potato plants to get a bigger crop Runner Beans and French Beans can go outside now. Keep tying in Tomatoes and feed them weekly, in the perennial border trim back any early flowering plants such as Geraniums and Dicentras, these will flower again in about four GARDENING Your garden in Juneweeks time. Also deadhead Lupins and Delphiniums and these will quickly re-flower. Perennial borders are best weeded by hand to prevent damage to emerging stems that a hoe could cause, a hand fork is the best tool to lift the weeds out in one piece.
Formal hedges such as yew and box can be trimmed now to keep their shape and thicken them up, this is also a good time to apply a granular feed and water in well.
I have been growing a strain of begonias which have been bred by Fred Yates in Cheshire for two years now, this year however, I have proper quantities available of the trailing type called “Amour and Devotion” which are stunning in hanging baskets or window boxes. I also have two bush type called “Glowing Embers” and “Cherry Bonbon” which are stunning in pots or in tubs on the patio. These Begonias all come under the name “Million Kisses” and are well worth a try you will not be disappointed by them.
Robin Harper Mount Nurseries, Spot Gate