If you do it now you'll catch most of them before they surreptitiously spread their seed and surround you on all sides.

Call me pathetic but I enjoy weeding at this time of year, when the ground is moist and they are easily removed with their roots intact.

Getting up close like that you can see what else is happening in the garden by titivating the soil with a hand fork as you go around, revealing any young slugs that are busy just below ground feeding off your tulip tips, your irises and day lilies.

Another important job now is the division, to increase vigour and "owering power, of some stalwart border perennials, before their new growth is too advanced and their young shoots too brittle to be bandied about. One such is Phlox paniculata, the tall border phlox, which is already noticeably in growth.

Also ready for splitting and replanting now is the invaluable Helenium 'Moorheim Beauty', which bene"ts from an annual division.

When replanting all the best bits remember to give them a place where they won't be shaded by the neighbours.