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GARDENS

Get in the garden: time for your big summer tidy up

Our expert Stephen Anderton has your to-do list for the long weekend, from lawn care to pruning and even bulb planting — so grab those shears!

The Times

When gardens are seriously hot and dry they seem to glaze over, shut down and prepare to wait it out. It’s the look that Brits complain about in Italian gardens: I don’t want more evergreens, I want to see flowers! Even so, if you are itching to be out there this weekend there are certain jobs that will set your plants in better order for the season ahead. Here are a few.

Wisteria sinensis
Wisteria sinensis
ALAMY

Wisteria
It may have grown less than usual, but wisteria still needs its summer prune, taking all those long wands of growth back to a couple of feet and out of the hair of other plants and gutters. It makes the final winter pruning to expose the future flowers ten times easier and