Plant around emerging bulbs

It’s the perfect time to plan borders and pop in some summer bloomers

Perhaps you’ve got a nice blank canvas in the shape of a bare border, which has some fabulous spring bulbs coming through. It’s quite handy as now you can see where they’re all going to pop up, so you can quite knowledgeably plant in between them without the risk of unwittingly unearthing any.

Ensure your sun-loving perennials get a good amount of sun to bake themselves in every day, and those that like part shade are situated correctly, too.

Now that garden centres are full to the brim with pots of perennials to plant, it’s a key element of your planting to give a little thought to planning. Spend an afternoon in among the plants in the shop, choosing some beauties according to eventual height, space and habit. It’s the best job in gardening!

Place all pots where you’ll be planting them first, to get a good idea of spacings and what goes where. Don’t plant too close together as they’ll all need room to grow, around 30-40cm (12-16in) apart is fine, then you can fill in any further gaps as and when they appear.

As long as your soil’s free draining and not frosty and hard, you can plant away with some superb summer bloomers. Simply dig a hole big enough for the roots and so the top of the compost is at the same level as the top of your border soil. Water each plant in well. Get it right now, and you could be rewarded with a splendid display for many years to come.