An easy guide to year-round gardening

There's a comforting, age-old rhythm to the cycle of the seasons and the corresponding work your garden needs. The reward for that year-round love and attention will be a horticultural haven of which you can be proud.

• In ornamental gardens, plant or cut back roses, bushes and shrubs; divide and transplant existing perennials; and sow annual summer flowers such as pansies and snapdragons.
• In the fruit garden, cut back berry bushes and grape vines. Plant delicate fruit varieties such as apricots and peaches and paint any frost cracks on tree bark.
• Plant cold-hardy vegetables such as peas, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, kale, broad beans and onions.
• When there's no danger of frost, plant carrots, beets, Swiss chard, cauliflower, potatoes, celery and radishes.

• Plant shrubs in the ornamental garden, prune early-blooming bushes after they've bloomed, tie up climbing roses and move potted plants outdoors when the danger of frost is past. Plant two-year summer plants and early bloomers, as well as summer bulbs such as dahlias and gladiolus.
• Add mulch or straw around strawberry plants. Thin out excess fruit on the trees and prop up branches overloaded with fruit using boards. Finally, water fruit trees well.
• Plant tomatoes, peppers and other tender veggies, as well as herbs like dill, oregano and basil.
• Harvest early beets, radishes, rhubarb, lettuce and spinach, plus the first berries.

• Trim deciduous hedges, remove wilted blooms and deadhead perennials, then plant fall-blooming bulbs and cut back to the ground the stalks of all early summer bloomers. In addition, divide iris and lily of the valley bulbs after they flower.
• Support heavily-laden branches on fruit trees and, after the harvest, begin the first pruning and trimming to remove dead or diseased wood. Don't water fruit trees and shrubs after the end of August. Trim berry bushes after the harvest.
• Plant pumpkin, squash, garlic, leeks, onions and beets in the vegetable garden so you'll still have fresh veggies in fall. Remove all the side shoots from tomato plants, and stop growth once about five fruit clusters have formed.
• Harvest the first potatoes and tomatoes, in addition to lettuce and many vegetable varieties, and the last berries, early apples and stone fruit.

• Trim evergreen hedges in the ornamental garden, tie up late-blooming perennials and plant biennial summer flowers. Now you can plant the bulb plants for next spring and remove annual bloomers entirely.
• Plant berries and hazelnut bushes in the garden; new blackberry shoots must be tied up. Fruit trees shouldn't be cut any further.
• Plant green mature plants on fallow soil in the vegetable garden. To prevent potato blight in tomatoes, protect them with a cover of transparent plastic sheeting.
• Harvest nature's bounty: apples, pears, blackberries, elderberries, hazelnuts and walnuts are ripe, as are tomatoes, leeks, late potatoes and late carrots.

• Plant rose bushes in the flower garden and hill-up hybrid tea roses with soil, straw or peat moss to prevent them from freezing.
• Remove dahlias, gladiolus, tuberous begonias and ranunculus from the ground after the first frost, and store in a cool location.
• Prune ornamental shrubs and cover perennial gardens and borders with compost, bark mulch or leaf litter. Give evergreen bushes and shrubs a last good watering before the frost comes.
• Plant fruit trees in the garden when there is no frost. Prune trees and remove dead or damaged wood on frost-free winter days.
• Protect vegetable gardens from the first night frost. Cover any vegetables not yet harvested with transparent plastic to help them ripen faster.