Fiann's tips for the weekend

Continue to earth up maincrop potatoes. Check the weather forecast for blight warnings.

Complete summer fruit pruning (notably cherries, apples, gooseberries, currants)

The trick with suckers (particularly a factor with apple, pear and plum trees) is to remove them by hand – by tearing downwards to rip away – if you cut them with a pruning knife or secateurs – they have a tendency to regenerate.

Try a soil detox. If this is year one and your first month to commence you could consider solarisation as a way to prep your ground for the months ahead.

If this is mid-stream, you can use the technique to refresh after a clearance harvest or prep certain beds for winter crops or if you have had pest or disease in the last while, it can really decontaminate your soil.

Simply put clear polythene sheets over your soil for a month or so and the heat will kill off the bad guys.

This can be the driest month – water where and when required but think of a mulch or a shady umbrella device where possible too.

The big pests this weekend other than the inlaws are

cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, aphids and perhaps pea moths.

Spray with insecticidal soap or your own version with a blitz of garlic and washing up liquid.