In the garden this week: Beautiful borders, plus time to mow

Beautiful borders If you've got gaps in borders, sow them now with hardy annuals such as cornflowers , calendula , love-in-a-mist and limnanthes , the poached-egg plant (good for attracting pollinators into vegetable gardens). The soil needs to be tiptop for seed sowing, which means creating a tilth of finely textured soil. Make straight drills in the soil and sow the seed into them: this makes it easier to tell them from weeds. Thin out when they germinate. It's mow time Time for the first of the year's many lawn mowings. Oh the joy. But first give the surface a once-over with a spring-tined rake, to itch out dead grass. Make the first cut a high one, just tipping the tops to let them know the boss is back. Then reseed any bare patches in areas that don't get used too often with microclover (elsewhere, wait until autumn): try Johnson's Easy Lawn (from gardensupplydirect.co.uk ). The clover fixes nitrogen from the air and keeps your lawn fed, green and lush.