THERE are many aspects to gardening one can take heart from, such as reaping the harvest from the vegetable garden or admiring first-class blooms from the flower garden.

However, not all tasks are as enjoyable and over the weekend I undertook what I call tedious tasks! In the vegetable garden, I recently lifted my autumn-planted onions, shallots and garlic and for the last few weeks have been ‘curing’ them in the hot sun – drying them out a little before putting into storage. But before they could go into net bags for storage, I had the slow task of topping and tailing them and this is a slow job. Basically, it means cutting off the dried leaves, tops and roots. These were then left in the sun a few more days before checking each one and placing in net bags for storage. I did have a good crop of onions, shallots and especially the garlic and these should see me well into next year.

It was also tedious work in the flower garden! This time it was keeping on top of the deadheading – an important task if you want to prolong the floral displays. Although the summer seasonal bedding is only recently planted a few blooms needed removing. The herbaceous border was most demanding, removing faded blooms form many spring- and early-summer-flowering perennials, such as cutting back the faded blooms frommy foxgloves, border geraniums, aquilegias and oriental poppies. Removing faded blooms will not only tidy the garden, it will help to put more energy into the plant and for some lead to a second flush of blooms (as in my rose garden, where the warm weather seems to have made blooms fade more quickly). In the case of the roses, you cut back faded blooms to allow other buds to bloom or to promote new growth of flower buds.

When I lifted a few new potatoes over the weekend I realised just how deep the dry weather is having an impact, which is a concern for the gardener. The good news is that anything that is established will take care of itself, such as trees and shrubs, which means watering should be carried out on anything newly planted, growing in baskets and containers. It’s not necessary to water the lawn, though – and yes, my own lawn is showing dry patches and the grass turning brown, although the first wet day and will soon colour it up. When watering, it’s a good idea to add a liquid feed, avoid applying granulated/powdered fertiliser to the soil whilst it dry (these can do more damage than good). Also, I would recommend adding liquid seaweed to the watering to help strengthen plants in a drought situation.

Despite the dry weather, weeds always seem to grow, so keep on top of them by regular hoeing – it’s far easier to control weeds as they germinate than when they become established.

Enjoying the warm weather in my garden this week is my ‘Angels Fishing Rod’ or Dierama pulcherrimum – from my photograph you can see that the plant has long arching stems of which the flowers resemble shapes of angels. It’s an evergreen grassy-looking plant which resembles iris shaped leaves, which is why itbelongs to the iris family ‘Iridace’.

A South African plant, it is very hardy in this country and easy to grow. It’s also very graceful looking and makes a good focal point. As with most plants, Dierama’s comes in many varieties and as such flower colour varies from white to deep purple. Depending on variety the grassy foliage grows to around 90cm. From June to August the plant throws out its long flowering stems and as the weight of the flowers develop it weights the stem down forming its fishing rod look. It prefers to grow in full sun, moist – but not waterlogged – soil where it will look after itself. In winter the leaves do die back a bit, so you can cut these off to keep the garden tidy. When the clump becomes large you can simply lift and divide, and you will have new plants for planting around the garden.