Peter Dowdall: Summer shows us exactly what we need to do in our gardens

July is the perfect month to walk around our rooms outside, see what’s going on, make notes and take pictures

In winter, when everything is cut back or dormant, it is very easy to convince ourselves that there is plenty of space, but by now, you may see a nepeta smothering a smaller perennial, or a hardy geranium sprawling too far, or a shrub that has grown bigger than expected. File pictures

In May and June, everything can look full of promise. Fresh growth and our own enthusiasm for the season ahead hide a multitude. The early perennials are flowering, the roses are beginning to perform, the foliage is lush, and there is a sense that the garden is building towards something, but by July, however, the garden is showing us what is really going on.

The first flush has passed, and plants are in full active growth. Some are flowering beautifully, some have disappeared, some have flopped across their neighbours, and some are making it clear that they were never happy where they were planted in the first place.