Raise the cutting height on your mower so that lawns can cope better in the hot dry weather. Feed your lawn with a high phosphate feed which will strengthen the roots for the winter. Mow meadows now to help scatter established wildflower seeds. Water containers, new plants, rhododendrons and camellias. Continue deadheading faded blooms but consider leaving some seedheads for the birds to eat.
Cut back herbs now to encourage new growth which you can then harvest before any frosts. Trim lavender plants now. Keep harvesting vegetables as the are ready which will then encourage the plants to put energy into new vegetables. Pinch out the tips of climbing runner and French beans when they have reached the top of the frame they are growing on.
Continue to summer prune wisteria, cutting back the wispy growth. Check levels in ponds and water features, top up if necessary. Take cuttings of tender perennials such as fuchsia and pelargoniums. Prune climbing and rambling roses after they have flowered unless they are repeat flowering types. Prune summer flowering shrubs after flowering. Continue to keep bird baths filled with water for visiting birds.
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