Three ways to improve your garden for summer

Have you noticed the weather this spring? May 1st was the hottest ever recorded, and March was the driest in more than sixty years.

All that sunshine sends us scurrying into our gardens, and my phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting to beautify their green space in time for summer.

It’s a little late for big changes, but here’s three small ones you can make today and enjoy this summer.

Plant summer bulbs. Gladiolus, crocosmia, lilies, or canna lilies if you’re feeling exotic. All can be planted now and will flower this summer. As bulbs are relatively cheap, consider buying organic, to protect insects, and the birds that eat them.

Sow seeds that will come back year after year. Native wildflowers and love-in-a-mist are good choices for pollinators, and not very tasty for slugs – huzzah.

Divide perennial plants like asters, geraniums and sedums. Now you have two! Plant the extra one in your garden, or give it to a friend. Keep it well watered once it’s in the ground, especially if this heatwave continues.

And the best thing about these changes? As well as being cheap, they’re about as low impact as gardening gets. I didn’t cause climate change, and nor did you. But as the weather shows, it’s already affecting our gardens. Making small sustainable choices helps me feel better about the environment. I hope it will for you too.