Like early summer, this is a good season for a colourful display in gardens grown mainly for ornament. The herbaceous perennials will still be in flower and the annuals and bedding plants will really start to come into their own in the next few weeks, filling out their growth and covering the soil with a patchwork of brilliant colour. For a sheer display of dazzle, there is nothing to beat the hardy annuals when they are grown really well.

Your main concern will be to see that the plants have enough water; mid-summer can be the hottest, driest time of the year, only interrupted by thunder-storms, when the rain comes down so fast that the dry ground cannot absorb it and it runs away to the lowest point. Watering by hose, sprinkler or can will be necessary throughout the period and the lawn especially should be kept moist. Mulches put on earlier in the year will prove their worth now.

The greenhouse, too, will need much attention in the form of watering the plants and damping down; constant watering does of course wash the nutrients out of the composts before the roots can absorb them so you may have to increase the frequency of liquid feeds and repotting.

There will be a little planting and seed sowing, some thinning and transplanting and a general titivation of the displays in the form of deadheading and trimming. Some training will still be necessary and disbudding of dahlias and chrysanthemums to produce large blooms can start, but the work is not anything like the spring rush or the winter labour. Plant growth in general has reached its maximum and, as it will remain at this peak for some weeks, you can relax.