The children are on holiday and the gardens of parents and grandparents are going to take some hard wear. Although there should be time to rest and relax you still need to strengthen the lawn ready for summer games and general outdoor living. Watch out for pests on flowers, roses and shrubs. You will need to control aphids as soon as you see them if they are not to make a mess of your displays.

BEDDING PLANTS

Hanging baskets and patio pots will need to be watered at least once a day as a minimum. On hot and windy days you may need to water in the morning and in the evening. If you forget to water and leave it to mid-day then ensure you keep the water off plant leaves as much as possible. Sunlight magnified through water droplets can cause scorch marks on the foliage that are unsightly for weeks.

With this amount of water passing through the plants and the compost, feeding is essential if the plants are to continue flowering throughout the summer. Use the best feed to encourage flowers such as high potash Tomorite or multi-purpose Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food. A once a week feed added to your watering regime is vital for good strong foliage and many more beautiful flowers.

July and August are the best times to take cuttings of geraniums and pelargoniums. Dip the base into Murphy Hormone Rooting Powder and push the prepared cuttings around the edge of a pot filled with a suitable medium. As geraniums prefer a freely draining compost you will find that a mixture of two thirds Levington Multi-Purpose Compost with one third sharp sand will suit the roots best.

topical tip

Greenfly and blackfly should be controlled on decorative plants to prevent twisted growth and the resulting black sooty mould that grows on their sticky excrement. Sooty mould coats the leaves below an aphid infestation and disfigures the plant as it turns black and mucky. No fungicide will control sooty mould. Just clear the aphids with BugClear, BugClear Gun! or Polysect Ready to Use Insecticide and it just won't be a problem. If the sooty mould is already there, hose down the plant with clean water to wash away the deposit.

ROSES AND FLOWERS

Drying soils at this time of the year will tend to encourage the spread of powdery mildew on roses. When you see the first spots of white powder spray the plant with a specific fungicide such as FungusClear or one which also contains a greenfly killer such as Roseclear 2.

Where bindweed is climbing through roses and shrubs take remedial action by cutting back stems down to ground level during the summer. The weed will regrow, so provide it with some stakes or twigs to clamber up away from your wanted plants. In this way you will be able to spray the weed easily with Roundup GC or paint it with Tumbleweed Original Extra Strong Gel during its most vulnerable time of life in late August or September. This is when the plant is transporting sugars down to the roots and will be most vulnerable to good control with one application.

It's time to take cuttings of tender perennials that need to be over-wintered in protected conditions, Fuchsias, penstemmon, felicia and osteospermum root easily at this time of the year so don't leave it too long before striking new plants from your favourites. Tie the growing stems of dahlias, late flowering chrysanthemums and Aster novi-belgii (Michaelmas daisies) to stakes so that they remain upright. Check for first signs of mildew on the Asters and spray with a good fungicide such as FungusClear to protect them from the disease.

topical tip

During the summer when it is important to water plants in the garden you are providing the ideal surface conditions that encourage slugs and snails to move fairly long distances. Continue to protect low-growing flowers and leafy perennials, especially hostas and busy lizzies with SlugClear Mini Pellets. If you water the plants in the morning and sprinkle the pellets in the evening then you will get maximum control.

ON THE PATIO

Ants are a particular problem in and around the home at this time of the year as they search for food and work to enlarge their nests. Dusting the ant runs on the patio with AntStop Powder will give excellent control. When applied around nests and crevices it can be watered in to kill insects below ground.

Powders can be unsightly when used indoors and people often prefer to use a liquid control that is invisible. Ant Stop comes in a ready to use hand sprayer that provides protection from ants and other crawling insects for up to 3 months. Simply spray around the edges of kitchen floors and along kick boards of units where ants are likely to run. As well as controlling pests directly with the spray, it leaves an invisible barrier of protection in and around your home. When pests cross the barrier, they carry away microcapsules of Ant Stop back to the nest which kills the colony by contact and ingestion.

On the patio watch out for the damage that vine weevil adults will be making. If you see the edges of fuchsia and rhododendron leaves being eaten into typical notches, suspect the evil weevil.

All adult vine weevils are female and each is capable of laying an average of 300 to 600 eggs over the summer. Although they have no wings and therefore do not fly, the nocturnal parents will travel and climb great distances to feed. They normally live for about 3 months. Take a torch at night and inspect your plants. The adults are 8 to 12 mm in length, have a roughened, dull black body on which there are patches of bristles. Squash any you find and repeat the search. Laying damp sacking around affected pots will give the pest the ideal hiding spot for daytime. Simply lift occasionally to discover if any more are present. If larvae are present in the compost then this needs to be disposed of when the plants have finished growing. Simply spread the used composts over the lawn thinly to give the birds a treat. When potting up plants that you want to over-winter, carefully wash the old compost off the roots and replant ornamental plants using Levington Plant Protection compost. This compost is unique in that it contains Intercept to give up to 12 months protection against vine weevil larvae plus up to 3 months control of greenfly and blackfly.

LAWNS

If the lawn is suffering from drought conditions raise the height of cut on the grass and leave off the grass box. Leaving fine cuttings on the lawn will help to reduce evaporation and water loss.

Your conscience and hose-pipe bans permitting, give the grass a good soaking in prolonged, dry weather. Spike the lawn before you start so the water doesn't run off. Water in early morning or late evening. You will find that the water pressure is higher if you do the watering early in the day, especially if you start before 7 am.

In most summers lawns don't get to the drought stage when watering is vital to survival. If August is average then all you will need to do is give it a light feed using a soluble lawn fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro Lawn Food. If you have a small area, simply dissolve and apply through a watering can. If the lawn is too big for that much carrying, buy a Miracle-Gro Feeder which will do the job automatically when fitted to the end of your garden hose. Fill the jar with the soluble plant food and remove the fine rose fitting. You will then be able to apply the ready dissolved lawn tonic as a good jet to do the job quickly and easily.

This is probably the last month for selective weed control, especially those weeds that are difficult to control such as black meddick and lesser trefoil. These yellow-flowered weeds have small clover-like leaves and, until now, have been very difficult to control. Thanks to a new selective weedkiller called Verdone Extra these and many other lawn weeds can be controlled with one application without harming the grass. Use it now.

topical tip

For a real tidy look just before a barbecue or other outdoor gathering trim the edges of the lawn.

FRUIT

Where new strawberry plants are developing on the ends of runners sink a pot containing Levington Multi-Purpose Compost. Pin down the plantlet with a wire grip and leave to root. After three of four weeks cut the runners and dig up the old plants you are replacing. Refresh the soil with organic matter and a dressing of Osmocote granules and position the new plants in tidy rows 30 cm (1ft) apart.

Feed the canes of autumn raspberries with Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food. Use a hose end Feeder to automatically dissolve the plant food and to wet the foliage as you feed around the roots. For maximum crops see that the soil is kept evenly moist and fed at least once a week while in flower and producing tasty fruit.

topical tip

Peach trees that show pink blisters on the foliage are suffering from peach leaf curl. Pick off the affected leaves and spray the tree with Murphy Traditional Copper Fungicide in September. This will help to reduce the number of disease spores that over-winter in the bark. For clean trees next year and a better chance of fruiting spray the plants again with the same fungicide in February as the new leaves emerge.

VEGETABLES

Keep weeds under control throughout the vegetable and fruit garden either with Weedol, Weedol Gun! or a back-breaking hoe.

In summers blessed with plenty of rain potatoes and outdoor tomatoes have been affected by blight. This disease is spread by rain splatters and in a wet August can destroy all the foliage very quickly. As soon as you spot the first spots of disease pick off these affected leaves and spray the whole plant with Murphy Traditional Copper Fungicide. A few sprays a fortnight apart will slow down the spread of the disease and ensure you get a reasonable crop.

There are plenty of vegetables that you could be harvesting for the kitchen including broad beans, runner beans, French beans, leaf beat, spinach, peas and summer cabbage. In the soil and ready for digging could be carrots, potatoes and beetroot. For summer salads; lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and spring onions could also be available. Picked young and eaten while fresh, the taste would beat most items you can buy from the supermarket and they are definitely cheaper.

Any garden can grow vegetables as well as flowers. To prove it buy a packet of short-rooted early carrots now and sow a few seeds thinly in garden soil between bedding plants, between roses, shrubs or perennials or in patio pots of good compost. Any soil will do. If you have stony ground or are using patio pots then choose a round variety such as Early French Frame, Rondo, Parisca or Parmex. For good humus rich soil choose an early variety such as Early Nantes or Amsterdam Forcing. In just a few weeks you will have tasty carrots that will delight the cook in your house and perhaps get you to devote some precious area in the garden to try other home-grown vegetables.

topical tip

Lift garlic and shallots and dry off the bulbs thoroughly. The best way is to dry them in the sun on an elevated bed of chicken wire so that air circulates all around the bulbs.

IN THE GREENHOUSE

Pot up some strawberry plants that have finished fruiting outdoors. Use a large pot filled with a quality compost such as Levington Multi-Purpose Compost and enrich this with Miracle-Gro Controlled Release Plant Food. Leave the plants outdoors until February and then move these potted plants into the greenhouse where they will produce a very early crop of tasty strawberries well before those growing outside.

Keep picking peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes the moment they ripen, so that the plants remain productive. Continue to feed every week with a potash-rich liquid feed such as Tomorite. Only remove the leaves of tomatoes if they are turning yellow and are finished. If the leaves are going pale between the veins then the tomato plant is probably suffering from magnesium deficiency. In this case buy some Epsom Salts and mix a teaspoonful in a gallon of water. Water this over the leaves and around the roots in the evening when the sun is not likely to scorch. Keep an eye out for whitefly and aphids on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. Take appropriate action as soon as pests are noticed.

It's almost impossible to ensure that during a holiday absence greenhouse crops will be adequately watered by capillary or automatic watering systems. Move pots and other portable plants to a shaded part of the garden, preferably a few days before you leave. Try tempting a friend or neighbour to water the remaining plants with the promise of all the crops that mature while you are away. Make the job as easy as possible by leaving watering cans and feed close to hand and leave all the doors and windows open for maximum ventilation.

topical tip

Pick tomatoes as soon as they ripen. Left too long on the vine they may split and will be open to disease making them inedible