Gardening Update: Weekend work

START planting daffodils, which always look better in large groups. If you are planting in grass, choose a spot where the dying daffodil leaves and the ever-lengthening grass will not irritate you to the extent that you cut the grass too soon.

Cut off and dry seed heads from alliums, Chinese lantern, honesty and poppies and hang them upside-down to dry for winter decorations. Bolted leeks have provided the most dramatic seedheads in my garden, larger than tennis balls, hundreds of little pips on stalks zooming out from the centre. They need no preparation, but honesty is improved if you peal off the outer coats either side of the central silvery membrane.

House plants should be fed and watered less as growth slows down for winter. Tuberous rooted begonias and gloxinias should be laid on their sides in a cool greenhouse.

Take semi-hardwood cuttings of shrubs such an ceanothus, choisya, hydrangea, honeysuckle, pyracantha and senecio. This is also a good time to peg down growth for layering. Cotinus, kalmia, hydrangea and honeysuckle all propagate well from layers. Annuals and biennials sown this summer - foxgloves, forget-me-nots and the like - can be transferred now to permanent quarters.