Life

This week's chores

1 Summer-prune wall-trained plums and cherries, with the exception of Morello, shortening their side-shoots by a third

2 Shade newly-planted crops such as brassicas from the sun until they establish

3 Apply a liquid feed to clematis in flower, to encourage them to flower again in late summer

4 Cut and dry everlasting flowers such as statice and bracteantha, to use them for decorative displays in the home

5 Continue to water and feed containers regularly to extend their colourful display into autumn

6 Cut back straggly pansies and petunias hard, give them a boost with a high potash fertiliser and new growth should soon appear with flowers later in the summer

7 Begin harvesting shallots, lifting the bulbs carefully and leaving them out in sunny weather to dry out

8 Sow spring cabbages, sowing the seeds thinly in drills 15cm (6in) apart, watering the drills before sowing if the soil is dry and cover them with fleece to stop birds eating the emerging seedlings

9 When climbing beans reach the top of their stakes, pinch out the tip of the leading shoot to encourage the plants to make more sideshoots lower down, so that more beans will be produced