With the warmer weather and recent rain gardens are lush and growing madly so there is plenty to do this month:

• Keep on top of weeds!  The dreaded bindweed and ground elder is a nuisance – either keep it under control by very carefully digging it up or apply glysophate gel to their leaves to kill off at the roots.
• Clear the leaves of spring flowering bulbs.  Pot planted bulbs can be lifted, dried and stored ready for planting out in the autumn.  Left in the ground, tulips degenerate each year until they die so the best thing is to treat them in the same way as pot planted bulbs above.
• Deadhead roses, peonies and geums to promote flowering except for roses that produce good hips such as Rosa rugosa. 
• Cut down ornamental poppies and pulmonarias to ground level for fresh new growth.
• Remove spent flowers from camellias and rhododendrons.
• Divide bearded irises after flowering making sure that when you replant that each section has at least two fans of leaves attached.
• Protect lilies, delphiniums and hostas from slugs.
• Remove reverted shoots from variegated Eleagnus and Euonymous otherwise they will take over.
• Start looking out for new stems on climbing and rambling roses and tie them in where necessary.
• Make sure lawns remain tidy by edging them with long-handled shears and start to add small quantities of lawn clippings to your compost making sure that you thoroughly mix with other straw-like materials to avoid a soggy mix.
• Clip evergreen box and privet hedges first making sure that there are no nesting birds hidden away inside!
• Prune ornamental cherries after flowers have faded.
• Sow winter bedding such as violas, primulas and wallflowers.
• Remove blanket weed from pond by twisting around a stick leaving the weed at the side of the pond for 24 hours to allow any wildlife to crawl back into the water.  Continue removing duckweed from the pond – this can be added to your compost bin.