Oh dear, you might be thinking.

"We are past the longest day already. But for me, as a gardener, a levelling off of the energetic frenzy of May and early June comes as a relief.

There is a sense of arrival and calm. What will be will be now.

No, we haven’t got on top of all the weeds and, yes, we didn’t do enough staking in May to prevent all the herbaceous perennials from flopping over one another, but they look gorgeous anyway.

The number one job for this weekend is to stop and admire what has arrived for the celebration that is mid summer.

The roses are here, the hardy geraniums are flowering repeatedly, the alliums are showing off, adding some structure and uniformity - in a spherical way.

Many of the fruits of summer are in evidence and vegetable harvests look promising.

You might be eating your own peas already if you got some going in pots in the autumn as we did with some of ours.

As well as the fruits and flowers, if you work with wildlife in mind, you will notice bees, birds and butterflies also joining the party.

Once you have taken it all in and acknowledged your own successes, if you just cannot resist doing something, here are some ideas for jobs this weekend.

June is the traditional time for giving a clean cut to ornamental evergreen hedges and topiary such as privet and box.

We are now well past the time that new growth can be caught by frosts. Take care though to ensure that your hedges and shrubs are not homes for nesting birds.

Don’t forget to make successional sowings of your favourite salad crops. Keep picking Swiss chard and spinach to get repeat harvests, and the same goes for your sweet peas.

Mulch (after rain if possible). Crops such as courgettes and all fruits need plenty of water to swell as they grow, so keep watering in dry weather, but to help prevent the soil drying a mulch will really help too.

An organic mulch of your own garden compost for example will improve the structure of the soil.

Our rhubarb is getting a good mulch. Rhubarb top growth suffers in very hot weather.

A number of visitors to the kitchen garden at Ford Park have asked for advice on their rhubarb this year.

The main problem for us all has been the heat, after its first couple of crops it has really slowed down.

If you're in the area, please drop down to see us in the gardens at Ford park. They really do look lovely at the moment - and we would be delighted to see you.