Now is the time to put out tender plants such as courgettes and tomatoes.

My tomato plants, grown from seed, have been in and out so often they need passports. The dreadful wind and rain earlier in the month were very damaging, and combined with the occasional cold night, has meant that I could not harden them off as early as I had hoped.

I use 12in pots to grow tomatoes in, one plant to each pot, with some decent compost that’s got some guts to it. This year I am growing the little yellow, multi-fruited ‘Ildi’ again, and the old favourite ‘Gardener’s Delight’.

They are both cordon varieties, which means I must be vigilant in tying them onto a cane as they grow and removing side shoots that develop between upright stems and laterals. The reason is to divert the plant’s vigour into flowering and fruiting rather than carrying on making more leaves. You can pop the side shoots into a pot of compost to root.

Consistent watering is a must for both courgettes and tomatoes. A drought followed by a flood is bad news and means the plants are under stress too much. It also leads to splitting in tomatoes and horrible powdery mildew on courgettes.

Feeding is important too. Use a tomato feed that is high in potassium (potash) at the recommended times and dosage.

To go with the tomatoes, I am sowing basil seeds now. Basil is a tender crop and hates wind and rain, so earlier sowings would have had to stay indoors where they often get whitefly. I have no idea how the whitefly know the plants are on my windowsill, but they do!

Succession sow as well, so that you always have enough. I sow some more seeds every ten or so days apart.

If you are a fan of dianthus (carnations and pinks) then you can create more by taking cuttings now. Look for non-flowering shoots about 3ins long and remove from the plant; trim under a node and remove the bottom leaves then pop around the outside of a pot of free-draining compost – use perlite or sharp sand to enhance drainage. Put somewhere light but not in direct sun and they should root in no time.

Trim over the early flowering clematis such as the alpinas, macropetalas and montanas now. You don’t need to go in there hacking and slashing unless things have got out of control; should this be the case then some serious cutting back will be necessary but don’t expect the thing to flower next year – it’ll be recovering from the shock.

Be on the lookout for aphids on the yummy new tips of things. Squish with your fingers where you can or if you must, spray, but do it before the bees are up or after they have gone to bed.

Make sure any spraying that you do is done when there is no wind, which can cause ‘drift’ and be damaging to nearby plants.