Keep borders looking fresh

Cut back spent flowers and faded foliage in your borders, such as lilies that are going over. First, stand back and have a good look so you can focus on what needs to be tidied up and what should be left for later flowering and winter structure.

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Then do some strategic snipping - as well as tidying up the border, this also gives you the chance to spot weeds hiding among your plants. Finish by trimming the lawn edges to sharpen the frame for your flowers, and your borders should look good for the rest of the month.

Give meadow areas a tidy-up

Use shears to cut back small areas of wildflower meadow.

Prune everything down to about 10cm and leave the trimmings on the surface for a few days to drop any seeds into the soil. Then rake it all up to allow light to reach the base of the plants and lower the meadow's fertility.

Cutting by hand rather than using a mower minimises damage to any sheltering creatures. The wildflower plants then have the chance to strengthen their growth so they can compete with the grasses and be ready for flowering early next year.

Trim hedges

It's a good time to give evergreen hedges a light prune, now that garden birds have finished nesting.

Trimming now also gives you a little regrowth this year but the neat shape will last until next spring.