Early flowering perennials such as oriental poppies, delphiniums, and hardy geraniums should all be cut back to the ground to encourage fresh regrowth and repeat flowering in a couple of months’ time. This also creates space for tender annuals and perennials in the border. Remove all cut material to the compost heap, weed around the base of the plants, water if necessary and do not plant too close to them so that they have light and space to regrow and flower again at the end of summer.

Pruning apples and pears at this time of year in summer is very useful for trained forms like espaliers, cordons, or fans or mature trees that have become to large or crowded because, unlike winter pruning, done when the tree is dormant, this hard cutting back will not stimulate vigorous regrowth. Remove all this year’s growth back to a couple of pairs of leaves (usually about 2-4 inches) being careful not to remove any ripening fruits. If you are training the fruit to a particular shape, tie desired but loose growth in as you go. Cutting it back now also allows light and air onto the fruit that is ripening and stops your trees becoming too crowded with unproductive branches.

Start by cutting the sides. Be sure to make the base of the hedge wider than the top – regardless of the height. This ‘batter’ allows light to reach the bottom half and ensures full, healthy foliage down to the ground. Then cut the top, using string as a guide to keep it straight and level. If it is an informal hedge, curve the top over so it is rounded.

If you have an overgrown hedge now is the best time to reduce it in size whereas if you have a hedge that needs reinvigorating, wait until winter and trim it hard when it is dormant. This will promote more vigorous growth next Spring.

Summer-fruiting raspberries carry their fruit on the canes that grew the previous summer – so all the fresh growth made in the current year will crop next July – whereas autumn-fruiting types produce their fruit on the new-season’s growth.

It takes a hot summer for tomatoes in Seattle to ripen before the very end of July but there is still a lot of tending to be done. Side shoots have to be nipped off almost daily and tomatoes need to be watered twice a week unless it is very hot. Do not feed them at all in July.

Most plants grown in a container will exhaust the available nutrients from the compost they were originally planted as they grow and will need a regular supplementary feed for the rest of the summer. A weekly feed high in potash that will help promote root and flower formation is ideal. Tomato feed (just enough - not too much) works well.

Most ramblers should be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering.

Many ramblers are best grown into a tree and these can be left unpruned apart from straggly, unkempt growth. However if space is limited or you training the rose in any way, this year’s new shoots should be tied in or cut back according to the circumstance. Remove any damaged or very old shoots, cutting them right back to the ground, and mulch.

If the leaves are yellowing and seed heads are forming, this is a good indication that garlic and shallots are usually ready to harvest. Carefully lift them (rather than yanking them out of the soil by hand) as you want to try and avoid damaging the roots and especially the root-plate – where they attach to the bulb.