Gardening: Your jobs for this weekend, with Brian Kidd

• If you grow greenhouse tomatoes, when the weather is hot, don’t use a tomato fertiliser. It is better to use a general purpose feed such as Maxicrop Complete liquid fertiliser. This contains less potassium. If too much potassium is used in hot weather it causes the fruits to ripen in parts leaving green hard parts. This is called greenback, but follow this tip and it can be prevented.

• Watch out for leaf curling, particularly on plums and cherries. Beneath the leavesyou will find there are hundreds of aphids, simply cut off the infected tips and put the prunings into a bucket and then the pests won’t escape. Then spray the trees with an insecticide which kills aphids.

• Transplant seedlings of sweet Williams in rows 18in apart. If you forgot to sow the seeds, they can be sown now.

• Tie in stems on the dahlias. On large varieties, three canes may be better than one. Dahlia foliage gets heavy after rain.

• Keep taking off dead flowers on all flowering plants. This will ensure blooms keep forming, particularly on annuals.

• Bend new shoots on climbing and rambling roses so they form arch-like appearances. This will ensure blooms are borne on the sides of the shoots, not just the tops.

• Feed sweet peas with Maxicrop Complete liquid frtiliser and remove every seed pod. This will keep themblooming for longer.

• Thin out apples and plums so none of the fruit touches each other. Spray after with Copper mixture to PREVENT brown rot on plums.

• Sow seeds of winter turnips and large rooted radish for winter soups. Dust the seedlings with ant killer to prevent flea beetle damage (tiny holes in leaves with crispy brown edges on the leaves).

• Take cuttings of all types of Daphne, side shoots 3in-long are ideal. Plant them in 75 per cent sharp sand with 25 per cent peat or peat substitute, keep them in the shade but they will take many weeks to root.