Make your garden yours - like the colour of your favourite football team?

Nature will decide that for us, so until that’s clear I will be carrying on like summer has yet to give way.

At this time of year our gardens can look like paradise, the accurate description of ‘a green place.’ Flowers have receded leaving luscious green foliage left to catch raindrops and make them look like emeralds glistening in the drying sunshine.

Early September has a lot to offer that catches the eye. Only commercial gardeners really want a manicured, homogenous square of garden. Most interesting gardens are a bit shaggy and rough around the edges. This is where the interest is and what creates ecological diversity.

Now the spring bulb catalogues are starting to arrive, take some time to seek out something unusual rather than what the supplier has a surplus of. I guess what I’m saying is, try and make your garden an extension of everything you like or enjoy. For example, there are tens of thousands of daffodil varieties so take your time to choose a selection you like and personalise your space. It’s even more marked with tulips, but don’t even think about planting them until at least November when it gets a bit colder.

Sicilian honey garlic, alliums, sedum, knipfophia (red hot pokers) and chrysanthemums can all be sown or planted around now and have an immense spectrum of different varieties with colour and scent. If it does start to rain and you’re stuck inside, try and use the time to research carefully exactly what you want in the garden and why. I have plants with connections to Devon, those with a link to the past and even those of a favourite team. Sometimes a plant given by someone special makes a garden incredibly personal and therefore a wrench to leave behind. I've heard of people who pack their garden as well as furniture when they move.

On the Plot

Dig out the remainder of the potato bed and store when they are completely dry. Even the tiniest speck of moisture will ruin a stored bag and make it very messy in the process.

Keep weeding the perennial weeds so they can’t take hold over winter. If you haven't a push/pull hoe, it will transform weeding for you and reduce your gym fees at the same time.

Keep watering beans at the roots to keep them producing for as long as they can. Harvest the sweetcorn if it gives off a milky substance when squeezed, then clear the area ready for winter crops or a thick mulch of manure if you can. Potatoes do well after sweetcorn, they give the soil a break after the corn has drawn all the nutrients out of it.

You could leave a few plants alone and collect their seed in a dry paper bag. Beans are particularly good for this as are beetroot and parsnips. In fact, nature being as efficient and organised as it is you can obviously do it with all plants, it's just some are easier than others.

Grapes are traditionally ripe in mid-September, but they seem to be early this year and although the roots tend to be sent very deep into the soil they are worth the trouble. Try Hamburg variety if you’re a beginner. They can be planted at any time if its not frozen solid and can be left for the first year before any of the fancy pruning is needed, by which time you will have enough time to be an expert on the art of growing grapes and maybe even wine-making.

Whatever you do this week try and make an effort to soak up as much sunshine as possible with a relaxing drink and maybe in a few years it will be one of your own vintage.