Jobs for the month
Now that the risk of heavy frosts has passed, it's time to put half hardy and tender plants out e.g cosmos, osteospernums and salvias.
Plant summer flowering bulbs such as nerines, gladioli, cape lily and zantedeschia.
Plant hanging baskets with free flowing bedding plants - lobelia, trailing fuchsias, ivy leaved pelargoniums and petunias. Water daily and start using a liquid feed (tomato food is ideal) after 3 weeks. Feed weekly until the roots are well established, then twice weekly for the rest of the summer. Dead head plants regularly to keep the display going. If that all sounds like a lot of work maintenance wise, choose plants such as house leeks or alpines, which need little more attention than watering in dry spells and the occasional liquid feed.
Sow seeds of biennials e.g wallflowers foxgloves, sweet williams, pansies, verbascum and sweet rocket. The plants will be ready to put in their final flowering position in the autumn.
Fruit and Vegetables
Tomato plants can be put in their final positions in the greenhouse, or in a sunny sheltered spot outdoors, in the border, big pots or growbags. Train them up canes or string and pinch out sideshoots as they appear.
Chillies grow best in a greenhouse or conservatory and can be planted into their final pots now.
Cucumbers can be grown in the greenhouse but need a sheltered site.
Seeds to sow outside now include chard, beetroot, spring onions, salads, oriental leaves, peas and french and runner beans.
Plant courgettes and summer squashes outside in rich fertile soil.
When you see strawberry fruits forming, spread a layer of straw between the plants, tucking it under the foliage and around the 'collar' of the plant to smother weeds and protect the fruit from the dirt and damp.
Wildlife
Dedicate a patch of lawn for wildlife. Raise the blades on your mower to their highest setting and leave them there all year round. Cut the grass regularly, roughly every 10-14 days to keep it under control and watch wildlife appear of their own accord.
Grow a selection of bee and insect friendly flowers - those with single flowers and lots of nectar. You can grow them in pots and containers as well as in the garden. Examples include single roses, sunflowers, poppies, foxgloves, asters, hebes, lavender, scabious, ornamental thistles, fruit bushes, and herbs such as marjoram, thyme and chives. For butterflies include buddlejia (the butterfly bush), valerian, sedum and a patch of nettles tucked away for them to lay their eggs on.