Top tips to get your garden ready for summer

With warmer weather starting to appear more regularly, drinking water supplier South East Water says that now is the perfect time to act and do those jobs around the garden – so you can put your feet up and enjoy it later!

Weeding may fill some people with dread but getting rid of them now will mean that other plants retain more precious water and carry on blooming long into the summer.

Another protection method is adding mulch, such as bark chippings, to borders and pots. It will lock in moisture, keep the soil from drying out during hot spells and save you from needing to water so much.

It’s not just the plants that we have now – with hotter summers and wetter winters, having a garden which can adapt to our changing climate is becoming even more important.

This could mean gardening with less water and choosing drought-tolerant plants to suit our growing conditions is a great habit to start now.

But you don’t have to compromise on beauty or fragrance. Many hardy plants deserve a place in any English country garden, such as these:

· Luscious lavender - A quintessentially English plant, thought to have been around in the UK since Roman times, which is hugely diverse. With a relaxing scent, this is a bountiful plant for bees and butterflies.

· Aromatic rosemary - What a plant?! It can feed you, gives off a heavenly scent, is a striking violet colour and is a year-round plant which is tolerant to drought. What more could you ask for?

· Gleeful geraniums - They aren’t just happy-looking plants, they work hard too! Some of the 422 species which exist are perennial as well, and are incredibly robust.

More gardening tips

South East Water is offering these tips and many more on its website here because together, if everyone makes simple changes, we can make more of this summer.