TO DO LIST

■ Clip over lavender lightly to remove dead heads and reshape the plants.

■ Dig the first maincrop potatoes, right, if you need spuds (finish off second earliest first). But leave the rest to keep growing until the foliage has died off naturally, as they need to finish maturing in the ground before storing through the winter.

■ Clip formal hedges and topiary for the last time this year. Privet will need another trim in four to five weeks’ time.

■ Start picking cultivated blackberries.

■ Plant Madonna lilies. These need planting shallowly, so the tip just shows above the soil.