IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE HOUR TO SPARE…

…sharpen your shears and secateurs and start cutting back. Chop deciduous grasses, such as stipa and miscanthus, to the ground; and ornamental willows and dogwoods to 10-20cm high. Shape late-flowing shrubs and clematis, and if you didn’t prune lavender in autumn, cut stems just above buds that are about to break, don’t go too far down into dead wood or it may not come back.