Take cuttings of summer bedding plants

August garden tasks 

This is the moment to survey your scented and bedding pelargoniums and decide which ones you’ve fallen in love with enough to want to preserve in perpetuity. For me, this year it is a cerise-flowered stray, bought from a market stall. It may not have a name but I love it all the same.

Take lots of cuttings a few inches tall, removing the lower leaves, and push them into gritty compost. Over winter keep some in a just-heated greenhouse and, if you can, some on the kitchen windowsill to give yourself a chance of seeing them again next summer.

If you haven’t got much time, just do these essential tasks…

Test sweet corn for ripeness by piercing a kernel. Clear liquid means it is unripe while milky means just right. A doughy kernal means it is too far gone.

Feed pumpkins and squash with liquid seaweed or comfrey for monster autumn fruits.

Stop vine weevils munching on plant roots with Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer, an organic treatment from www.greengardener.co.uk.

Cut summer raspberry and hybrid berry canes to the ground as soon as they have fruited, and tie in younger canes, which will fruit next year.

• These and other gardener's notes including season recipes from Lia Leendertz can be found in the August issue. Look out for other tips month by month.