• Installing a 2 - 3 foot high wire mesh fence with 1 inch or less opening will exclude rabbits from the garden. Secure the fence to the ground with "sod staples" so they cannot get underneath it..
• Keep your eyes open for pests and diseases in the greenhouse and the garden, and take appropriate action immediately to stop the problem getting out of hand.
• Weed regularly.
• If the weather is dry be prepared to water vulnerable plants.
  
• Ventilate the greenhouse and apply shade paint if necessary. Damp down if the weather is hot
• Use contact weedkiller to control rampant weeds; its not too late to mulch.
• Use fungicide on plants prone to mildew in dry weather.

Lawns

• Progressively lower the mower blade.
• Trim your lawn at least once a week to keep it neat and dense.
  
• Trim lawn edges each time you mow.
  
• Treat weeds individually with a spot weeder or dig them out with an old knife.
  
• Remove any coarse grasses by hand.

Containers

• It is essential to keep all container plants well watered
  
• Tidy summer containers. Remove fading flowers regularly.
• Feed container-grown shrubs and perennials

Annuals and biennials

• Support tall-growing hardy annuals.
  
• Now is also a good time to cut back leggy annuals and perennials like petunias, cornflower, black-eyed susan, spiderwort and yarrow. Removing dead flowers will stimulate repeat blooming later this summer.
• Spider mites love hot dry weather and are very active currently on many plants. They feed on the underside of leaves and can been seen with an unaided eye. Spider mite damage is called stippling and looks like tiny yellow dots on the leaves, in severe infestations the entire leaf may look yellow. Control them with by spraying the plants daily with a hose or apply insecticidal soap.
• Thrips feed on flower buds and opened flowers which causes them to turn brown. Check the underside of leaves for their presence, it will look dirty and silvery. Control with insecticide.
• Attract beneficial insects that will help to naturally control pest insects to your landscape and gardens by planting a wide variety of flowering annuals and perennials that bloom over the entire growing season. We suggest marigolds, daises, asters, mums, carrot, dill, fennel, parsley, mint, and thyme.

Perennials

• Put plant supports and stakes in position.
  
• Remove weak new shoots.

Roses

• Spray bush and climbing roses with fungicide and insecticide mix.
• Dead head regularly to encourage flowering.

• Look and enjoy!

Herbs

• ·Pinching back herbs to stop flowering will keep the best flavour in the leaves and encourage branching.

• Harvest blackberries when the fruit is a dull, deep purple, then prune the fruiting wood away.
• Raspberries in intense sunlight that also experience high temperature can show symptoms of White Druplet Disorder. The fruit becomes hard and turns white, but is still edible.
• Thin tree fruit clusters.
• Tip-layer bramble bushes to get new plants.
• Old strawberry beds (3-4 years) should be renovated this month. Peg down any runners into pots if you want plants for forcing.
• Brown rot affects peach, cherry and plum fruit. Small brown spots develop in bruised or punctured fruit skin usually one to three weeks before harvest. The fungal lesions expand and the fruit turn brown, shrivel and are then referred to as "mummies". Control disease with early and continued fungicide applications, by removing mummies from trees and ground, and with proper annual pruning in February.
• Harvest fruit gently being careful not to bruise the skin.

Vegetables

• Lift shallots and dry for storage.
• Transplant winter cabbages and brussels sprouts.
• Sow chicory and radiccio for winter forcing.
• Sow swiss chard for winter leaves.
• Sow late carrots and turnips, using 'early' varieties.
• Lift last of the early and second early potatoes.
• Earth up maincrop potatoes for the last time.
• Sow fast-growing lettuces such as little gem for a late crop.
• Ensure pumpkins and marrows are supported off the soil on bricks or tiles.
• Flea beetle is a serious pest of brassicas. This small black beetle is named for its habit of jumping when disturbed. Damage symptoms are small shot holes in leaves. Good botanical insecticides are used to control them.
• Some things are easy to grow and take minimal effort. Spinach, swiss chard, flat-leafed parsley, kale, beans, rocket, potatoes and courgettes are all great beginners' plants. See our vegetable guide for more information.

• Remove tomato plant leaves infected with the Early Blight fungus. Look for leaves with lesions resembling a bulls-eye pattern and yellow halo on the lower part of tomato plants. The fungal spores splash up from soil onto the lower leaves, but are also spread on wind currents. Prevent disease by covering the soil with newspaper and watering only the base on the plants. Apply a copper fungicide to severe disease outbreaks.
• Cucumber plants that continue to wilt despite watering are infected with bacterial wilt disease transmitted by the cucumber beetle. The is no control for the disease, remove infected plants.