It's time for serious planting of tender bedding plants and vegetables now that the chance of frost has disappeared. Long days will give you plenty of time for final preparation of patio displays and keeping the lawn in tip-top shape. Those who have invested in garden lighting will be able to work until bedtime.

THE GARDEN

Before removing the plants from their trays, pots or containers water them with a dilute solution of Miracle-Gro Plant Food. Use the plant food at half the recommended strength - a teaspoonful in a gallon of water. Next improve the soil with organic matter so that the structure is improved and the water-holding capacity is increased. If the flower bed is empty then spread Levington Soil Improver & Mulch over the whole area and fork into the top few centimetres of soil. If you are planting in between shrubs and perennials use a handful or two mixed in the bottom of the planting hole and the same amount in the soil which is used to fill the hole.

The reason behind this soil improvement is scientifically based. All of these plants will have been grown in an organic medium and the roots will not easily spread into plain mineral soil. By giving them organic matter to latch onto, the roots will more readily spread far and wide and improve the root system and increase overall blooming potential of the bedding plant. After planting, water in the plant with half strength Miracle-Gro Plant Food, wetting the leaves as well as around the roots. This feed will be absorbed almost instantly to help them get over any transplanting shock and start growing vigorously. Remember to continue to feed your flowering bedding every week with Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Plant Food to ensure they produce big, beautiful results.

At this time of the year all shrubs and flowers will start to get hungry as they use up the nutrients in the soil. It's easy to give them a refreshing balanced diet with Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Plant Food. Just water on, either dissolved in a watering can or automatically via a Miracle-Gro Feeder. The Feeder simply attaches to your hose and off you go! It's the quickest way to feed the whole garden in minutes.

Slugs and snails will have a field day on these lush new leaves, so protect them with SlugClear Mini Pellets or water on the liquid concentrate called SlugClear.

As the weather warms up and tender new shoots support more and more greenfly you need to watch out for infestations. There are plenty of sprays to control aphids, but its worth spraying as soon as you see the pests because they reproduce so prolifically. Use Natures Answer Natural Pest Control or BugClear Gun! for ready-to-use control. If you have a pressure sprayer and the pests are widespread use BugClear.

Some plants are susceptible to diseases. Roses, verbena and the chrysanthemum family often develop mildew and carnation, antirrhinum and hollyhock get rust spots. For systemic control of these diseases on these ornamentals use up any stock you have of RoseClear 2 or buy some fresh RoseClear 3 or RoseClear Gun!.

topical tip

Roses are not only vulnerable to greenfly attack but powdery mildew as well. To control the spread of both it saves time and effort to spray with a combined insecticide and fungicide such as Roseclear 3 or Natures Answer Natural Pest & Disease Control.

ON THE PATIO

Many of us will have plenty of perennial plants and shrubs in pots that are now putting on new growth. These established plants such as hydrangea, roses, fuchsias and lilies need feeding if they are to remain healthy and bloom to their potential. To avoid starvation feed the plants every week with diluted Miracle-Gro Plant Food. Dilute in a watering can or apply automatically with the Miracle-Gro Feeder. Wetting the plant leaves and the compost thoroughly will give you a magnificent display.

Its time to plant up new annual flowering plants in pots and containers to give a splash of vibrant colour to the patio. Here's what to do.

Make sure your pot is a good size as the smaller the pot the more quickly it will dry out. Add a drainage layer of broken crocks or gravel to improve the drainage and line absorbent terracotta pots with plastic to reduce water loss through the walls of the pot. Fill the pot with a good quality compost - such as Levington Potting Compost or Miracle-Gro Plant & Gro. If the pot is really tall you may like to fill the bottom third or so with polystyrene packing chips to keep it light enough to move about and save on compost.

If you want to protect your decorative flowering plants from vine weevil attack then use Levington Outdoor Container Compost with Insect Control compost which includes a special insecticide called imidacloprid.

Cram in as many plants as possible using a colour theme for the best display. Most successful planting will have the tallest plant in the centre, shorter ones next and edged with trailing material.

To feed your potted plants for six months push Miracle-Gro Controlled Release Plant Food Tablets below the surface of the compost. Use two or three in a 20-25cm pot or six in pots over 30cm. Hanging baskets are just as easy. Line the basket with polythene, fibre liner or moss. One prize-winning gardener lined her baskets with old woollen jumpers and got great results because the rotting wool releases extra nitrogen gradually throughout the season. Ordinary people rely on the slow release benefits of Miracle-Gro Controlled Release Plant Food Tablets - they release balanced plant foods not just nitrogen so the results should be even better. Place a saucer in the bottom of the basket to stop water draining straight through. Half fill the basket with a good quality compost such as Levington Container & Hanging Basket Compost. Tape the chain to a stick in the centre of the basket to keep it out of the way while planting.

Slip trailing plants through the sides of the basket. To do this without damaging the roots or stems roll the plant up in a tube of paper or plastic - just like a sausage roll. Plant up the top of the basket making sure you've got plenty of trailing plants around the edge.

Finally push in some Miracle-Gro Controlled Release Plant Food Tablets below the compost surface. Use four in a standard 12 inch basket, five in a 14 in. and six in anything larger.

LAWNS

Summer sunshine and leisure weekends mean that the garden needs to look at its best just now, especially if you are entertaining. Your guests at barbecues and patio parties will be taking note of the overall look and for most gardens the lawn will make the biggest impression. To maximise the impact cut the grass regularly. You may find that a whizz over with the lawn mower twice a week is much quicker than removing lots of clippings just once a week.

Keeping the grass thick and green is essential to a good look. Some lawn fertilizers are quick to work, but don't last very long. It's all to do with the solubility of the nitrogen. Soluble products like Miracle-Gro Lawn Food and EverGreen Lawn Food Liquid will green up in less than a week but only last a few weeks. Others like Evergreen Lawn Food and Scotts Lawn Builder are dry mini-granules that contain slow release nitrogen and some iron so that you get the best of both worlds - a quick initial green-up in a week and long-lasting feeding that shows results for at least eight weeks.

A well kept lawn is the heart of a beautiful garden and any work carried out here will be worth the effort. At this time of the year weeds will be spreading thick and fast throughout the lawn and they need to be controlled early if the grass is to remain thick and healthy. One application of Verdone Extra liquid lawn weedkiller will give season long control of weeds without harming the grass. The new formulation is good on the problem weeds such as lesser trefoil, black meddick and common mouse-ear as well as the ordinary broad-leaved weeds such as white clover, dandelion, daisies and plantains.

topical tip

If you only have a few lawn weeds scattered around the lawn these can be easily dealt with individually with the ready-for-use Verdone Extra Spot Weeder. Just aim and shoot.

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Sow marrows, courgettes and squashes outdoors in soil which has been well improved with organic matter such as Levington Soil Improver & Mulch or well rotted garden compost. They appreciate a deep root run which holds plenty of moisture.

Continue to sow lettuce and other salad stuffs. The loose leaf varieties such as Red Salad Bowl, Lollo Rosso and Bijou are tolerant to hot weather and seem to do better at this time of the year than the cabbage head types which can annoyingly run to seed. Tender herbs such as sweet basil can be sown now. The interest in herbs is so great that seed catalogues list many different types of basil, including lemon, spicy Thai and large lettuce leaved.

To produce a good crop of vegetables you need to reduce the amount of competition mounted by weeds to a bare minimum, especially at the seedling stage. Any soil is capable of sending up a flush of weeds at this time of the year, especially after a little cultivation. We've all experienced the problem. Sow a row or two of carrots and every nettle, groundsel and fat hen weed pops up at the same time meaning a back-breaking session of hand weeding to get the seeds from between the carrot seedlings. To minimise this competition and the necessary hand weeding prepare the seed bed a couple of weeks before you are to sow your vegetables. Apply a slow release plant food such as Miracle-Gro Shake & Feed to the surface and rake in, removing all large stones as you go. Now leave the bed for a couple of weeks to allow the weed seeds that have been brought to the surface to germinate. Apply Weedol or Weedol Gun! to kill these weeds just before sowing your vegetable seed in shallow drills. Because Weedol is de-activated on contact with the soil these new seeds can be sown straight away and will germinate as normal but without the usual weed competition.

In the fruit garden look out for the different types of aphids that can attack your plants. These pests not only distort leaves but can also spread virus diseases too. Check blackcurrants and red currants for the blister aphid which causes reddish blotches on the top leaf surface and the leaf-curling aphid which produces twisted new growth. On gooseberries look out for gooseberry aphid that causes twisting of growth and on raspberries the stem coating aphid. Strawberries can be attacked by the shallot aphid and the strawberry aphid so check plants regularly. All cases can be controlled with a thorough spraying, especially on the underside of leaves with Natures Answer Natural Pest Control.

Strawberries should be protected from mud splashes with matting or straw. Before this material is placed in position water the soil with SlugClear and when it is down scatter a few pellets of SlugClear Mini Pellets around to catch slugs and snails that come in over the top.

topical tip

Caterpillars can be a menace on cabbages and apples. Whenever you see the first signs of attack spray with BugClear. On apples, spray the whole plant in June and again three weeks later to prevent the pale pink maggots of the codling moth eating into the fruit.

IN THE GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY

Now that bedding plants, tender vegetables, patio pots and hanging baskets have been moved outside there should be space for the rampant growth of tomatoes and other greenhouse vegetables. Check shading is in place and improve ventilation so that the hot summer sun does not make conditions inside the greenhouse unbearable for both you and your plants. Leave doors open to improve circulation of cooling air and pollinating insects.

Tomatoes, aubergines and sweet peppers will need watering daily and feeding weekly to ensure they produce a large, tasty crop. Feed tomatoes and other crops with Tomorite to ensure good sized fruits and excellent flavour. This traditional liquid plant food is high in potash to ensure good setting and top-quality, full-flavoured tomatoes. No wonder it's the country's favourite. Summer is the time for whitefly to breed prolifically under glass. Physical traps based on the sticky glue idea of fly papers are commonly used to catch the adults.

For chemical control of the whitefly on plant leaves spray thoroughly at regular intervals. Most garden insecticide products for whitefly control can be used on ornamental plants but you need to read the labels carefully to check if they can be used on food crops such as tomatoes. For control of whitefly on a wide range of edible crops such as tomatoes, aubergines and peppers use Polysect Ready to Use.

topical tip

Mist plants regularly with plain water to keep down populations of red spider mite and encourage fruit set. Only make plant leaves wet early in the morning or in the evening when the sun has lost its power to scorch the leaves.