It may be school holidays but the garden continues to teach us lessons on how to get beautiful results from flowers, fruit and vegetables. Our plants can't be left to their own devices and this is a great time to get children involved in caring for garden plants. Take time to give every visiting child a small area of the garden and show them how to grow their own favourites.

THE ORNAMENTAL GARDEN

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Summer flowering plants need a lot of water and regular feeding to give a great display that lasts into the autumn. Dahlias are especially hungry and thirsty so will appreciate a weekly dose of Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food to encourage strong growth and plenty of flowers with rich colours. Bedding plants such as petunias, salvia and sweet peas also need feeding, although a good feed every fortnight should be enough to see them through.

To reduce the amount of watering required between these feeds you can reduce the amount of water that evaporates from the soil and deter slugs at the same time if you spread a mulch layer of Bark on the soil surface. To ensure the plants remain upright in heavy winds, tie new dahlia stems to stakes regularly.

Some annual plants such as poppies, love-in-a-mist and clarkia will easily set seed that can be collected and saved for use next year. Use a paper bag to collect the seed and write on it what it contains. For maximum viability allow the seed to thoroughly dry for a couple of days indoors and then pop bags into an air-tight food container.

As the soil gradually dries out in summer, powdery mildew spreads more easily among roses, sweet peas, Michaelmas daisies and all manner of shrubs, especially those positioned against a wall. Deep watering and plenty of room for air to circulate between plants will go some way to keep your plants clean, but when you spot the first signs of this white powdery deposit on leaves and buds, then it's wise to spray right away. FungusClear Ultra is among the newest of the systemic disease controls that get inside the leaves to fight any existing disease and prevent new spores from germinating. It contains a new ingredient called triticonazole which gives good control of powdery mildew, rose blackspot and rust.

At this time of the year other diseases may also be noticed on ornamental plants in the garden. Antirrhinum, fuchsias, hollyhocks, pelargoniums and chrysanthemum are prone to rust, seen as yellow orange or brown raised spots on leaves and stems. To control the spread, pick off and burn affected leaves and spray affected ornamental plants.

Not all discoloured or mottled leaves are due to diseases - pests are often the culprit. In hot weather thrips, often called thunder flies, suck the sap and eat the leaf surface leaving a silvery flecking on flowers and leaves. Gladioli are particularly susceptible, especially when planted close to south facing walls. To prevent the flowers from being ruined completely spray at the first signs of attack with BugClear Ultra Gun!

Timely Tip

Start to take cuttings of geraniums, fuchsias and other plants you want to overwinter in a handy size. Place your prepared cuttings around the edge of a pot of fresh Levington Seed & Cutting Compost and keep in a shady spot indoors while they develop new roots.

LAWN CARE

If you intend to sow or turf a new area of lawn this autumn, it's time to start preparing the area to give the best results. Anyone can sprinkle seed over soil, but if you want your lawn to be flat, free-draining, weed-free and establish quickly, then preparation is the key to short and long-term success. Here's a step-by-step guide to the sequence of activity.

1. Position your lawn area away from permanent shade from trees, walls and houses. This will ensure the grass has the light necessary to thrive.
2. If you are renovating an existing lawn that is full of tough broadleaved weeds and coarse grasses such as Yorkshire Fog or annual meadow grass then you should kill all the grass and weeds with Fast Action Roundup RTU or Tumbleweed Ready To Use a week or so before you start cultivation.
3. If the soil is clayey and becomes waterlogged then you will need to dig a soakaway or two at the lowest part of the lawn. Fill a hole 50cm square and 1 metre deep with rubble to within 30cm of the surface. Top this off with a 15cm layer of small stones or grit and finally the same amount of top soil.
4. Now dig the soil taking out any large bricks or stones as you go. Improve drainage on clay soils by adding sharp sand as you progress. If your soil is free-draining sand, or has a lot of small stones then improve its water-holding capacity by adding EverGreen Enriched Lawn Soil or Miracle-Gro Soil Improver to improve the structure.
5. When the surface is dry, consolidate the soil by shuffling your heels all over the surface to break down any clods and to press out any soft spots that could develop hollows. An overall dressing with EverGreen Lawn Start will ensure your new seed or turf roots have all the nutrients they need to establish quickly. Then rake gently to level the site to remove any remaining bumps and hollows before leaving the area for three or four weeks to see what weeds develop.
6. After a few weeks we will be in September and the new lawn area will have sprouted a great new crop of weeds that should be killed off before sowing your new grass seed or laying turf. Annual weeds are best treated with Weedol MAX as this shows visible results in just 1 hour and the job can be continued the day after treatment.
7. For great results buy one of the EverGreen Grass Seed mixtures. Choose Multi-Purpose for a hard-wearing back lawn, Fine for a quality front lawn and Shady for areas that are over-shadowed.

Keeping an existing lawn looking good through August usually means occasional watering and a liquid feed to keep the grass lush and green. The easiest way to do both of these jobs is with the Miracle-Gro Liquafeed hose-end device. It fits to the end of a standard hose and will water the lawn through an adjustable head that delivers a gentle spray, a narrow jet or a wide angle gush. When you want to feed all you do is to screw a bottle of Liquafeed Lush Lawn Food into the device and it automatically dilutes the concentrated lawn food that will green-up your grass in just 3 days.

Timely Tip

Weeds such as white clover, dandelions and daisies may be springing up and thriving while the grass is under stress. After the lawn has had a good watering, treat the whole area with a selective weedkiller such as Verdone Extra that works on the weeds not the grass.

GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES

Continue to feed tomatoes with Tomorite at regular intervals and remove side shoots as soon as they are big enough to pinch out. Fruit will be ripening regularly and you should pick tomatoes as soon as they ripen. At this time of the year the skin can split allowing diseases to start if they are left too long on the vine.

You should be harvesting plenty of young runner beans, dwarf beans, courgettes, potatoes and carrots to fill your dinner plate with home-grown vegetables. If you can pick and eat peas and sweet corn within a couple of hours of harvesting you will experience maximum flavour and nutritional goodness for you and your family.

Throughout the month keep a close watch for whitefly spreading on the underside of cabbage, calabrese, broccoli and other brassicas such as wallflowers, kale and sprouts. Be prepared to spray plants affected as soon as you see the first colonies. There are many insecticide products that can be used on flowering and other ornamental plants but their use on edible crops is not recommended. BugClear for Fruit & Veg, on the other hand, can be used on all edible plants both in the garden and in the greenhouse. It contains rape seed oil and provides a great organic solution to pests that does not taint the crop in any way and allows food to be picked and eaten the same day as spraying.

Clear space for a seed bed so that you can sow spring cabbages for next year's harvest. The benefit of spring cabbages is that they supply open spring greens or collards in early spring and mature heads later in the season. Traditional pointed varieties include Durham Early, Offenham which are very hardy and Harbinger, less tolerant of really cold winters, but with an attractive pale green colour. Some of the newer varieties produce F1 quality greens and include Advantage, April and Duncan.

Water courgettes, pumpkins and marrows at least once a week to keep them growing strongly. Cropping plants including sweet corn, runner beans and French beans also need watering just as often although they do appreciate a tablespoon of Miracle-Gro Plant Food at regular intervals to encourage continuous production.

Onions, garlic and shallots will be ready for harvest as soon as their leaves start to wither and turn brown. To ensure they ripen off fully, dig under the onion bulbs to break the roots during a warm dry spell of weather. In a week or so the bulbs will be ready to lift for storage. The traditional French onion seller's method of tying the withered stems to a string is still the most reliable one for long-term storage in a garage or shed. Onion bulbs hanging freely in dry air are less likely to develop storage rots.

Timely Tip

Sow seed of spinach beet to provide a useful crop from October through until April.

THE FRUIT GARDEN

When summer fruiting raspberries have finished producing then they should be cut out completely down to ground level. This will leave more room for next years canes to be tied into the supports. A feed every couple of weeks of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Fruit & Vegetables Concentrated Liquid Plant Food applied over the new foliage and around the base of the canes will ensure sturdy natural growth that will pay dividends next year.

It's time to increase the number of strawberry plants that will produce luscious fruit. Either pin down the heads of runners from existing plants so that each can root in a pot of Levington Multi-Purpose Compost or buy new plants for fresh planting. If you don't have enough room in garden beds for more strawberries you can always plant them up 6 to a Levington Strawberry Giant Planter. This can be positioned on a sunny balcony, path or patio where you will be rewarded with a great crop of juicy fruit next year.

Timely Tip

Feed autumn fruiting raspberries with a plant food such as Miracle-Gro Azalea, Camellia and Rhododendron Plant Food that is rich in nitrogen and sequestered iron to fight any tendency of the leaves to turn yellow at this time of year.

THE PATIO GARDEN

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Watering is the most important part of patio gardening. Heavy rainfall is rarely enough to keep hanging baskets and patio pots naturally moist, so additional watering is essential. Hanging baskets and smaller pots may need a daily soaking but in breezy, warm weather they may need watering twice a day to keep them perky.

Feed flowering patio pots every week with Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food or the liquid concentrate Miracle-Gro Outdoor Plant Food. Dead-head all flower heads as they fade to encourage the development of new buds.

Watch out for ants in warm weather creating new nests and making a nuisance of themselves during summer and the barbecue season. When you see the ants running, whether on the patio or in the kitchen, place an Ant Stop! Bait Station in their path and the pests will do the rest. Workers enter the enclosed trap and take away to the nest a special ingredient that will quickly and effectively kill the whole colony. You may see some extra activity for a couple of days, but after then you will be free for many weeks as the Ant Stop! Bait Station remains effective for up to 3 months.

Plant up herbs in pots so that you can have a handy supply positioned beside the kitchen door. Keep rampant mints in their own container or they could swamp the more delicate plants. Sage, rosemary, and thyme all make great companions, but don't crowd too many plants to one pot, just use more pots! A free-draining compost is ideal and that's why many people prefer Levington Multi-Purpose Compost with John Innes. This unique combination of peat, sterilized loam and horticultural sand is ideal for most culinary herbs although you could mix some extra grit into Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Peat-Free Compost if you wanted to grow your plants in a totally natural way. At the same time sow more salad seeds in a large flower pot for autumn use. These cut-and-come-again packets of mixed seeds usually contain tasty rocket, lettuce, mustard, mizuna and other exotics. I usually add some beetroot seeds to the mix to add red stemmed attractiveness to the tasty basics.

Timely Tip

Watch out for nocturnal vine weevil adults that may be emerging to nibble around the edges of leaves of decorative flowering plants in patio pots. Drenching the soil of affected plants with BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer will not only kill the grubs that will be eating plant roots but will also protect the plant from attack from other sap-sucking pests including aphids, whitefly, scale insects and mealy bugs.

GARDENING INFORMATION FROM The Scotts Company (UK) Limited

WRITTEN BY JOHN CLOWES

ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Ant Stop!™ Bait Station contains fipronil. BugClear Ultra Gun! and BugClear™ Ultra Vine Weevil Killer contain acetamiprid. BugClear for Fruit & Veg contains rape seed oil. FungusClear™ Ultra contains triticonazole. FungusClear 2 Gun! contain myclobutanil. Roseclear® 3 Gun! contains bifenthrin and myclobutanil. Fast Action Roundup RTU and Tumbleweed® Ready To Use contain glyphosate. SlugClear Advanced Pellets contain metaldehyde. Verdone® Extra and Verdone® Extra RTU contains fluroxypyr, clopyralid and MCPA. Weedol MAX contains pelargonic acid.®/™, Miracle-Gro, Liquafeed, EverGreen, Levington and Tomorite are registered Trade Marks of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company LLC or its subsidiaries. Roundup is the registered trade mark of Monsanto Technology. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, Salisbury House, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1XE. Tel 01483 410210