Colourful flowers bring light and joy to any home. If you love having fresh, seasonal bouquets, but want to skip trips to the florist and save cash, why not grow your own?

With a mix of perennials, grasses, and blooms, you can create a cutting garden that provides flowers throughout the year. Now is the time to start planning your borders for summer. Start by considering the times of the year...

Flowers from May to June: Peonies are classic, intricate, and available in a rainbow of colours. They thrive in bright spots with rich, well-draining soil and benefit from general-purpose fertiliser. Use stakes to support the heavy flowers. Gypsophila, or baby's breath, is a dainty yet hardy option. It grows well in ordinary soil without fertiliser and works beautifully to fill border gaps.

Flowers from June to July: Delphiniums offer pastel beauty and need fertile, well-drained soil in a sheltered, sunny location. Protect them from wind and stake their tall spikes for support. Verbena is another fantastic choice, attracting pollinators with its delicate clusters. A sunny spot and well-drained soil ensures continuous flowering.

Flowers from July to August: Phlox, with its lightly scented, star-shaped blooms, makes an eye-catching addition to bouquets. It prefers moist but well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade. Lilies provide flamboyant variety, with numerous colours and shapes. Plant bulbs in autumn or early spring in rich, well-draining soil and a sunny location.

Flowers from August to September: Mountain fleece is a striking perennial with soft blooms on tall wands, complemented by dark green foliage. It thrives in average, well-drained soil and full sun. Achillea, with its flat, circular flower heads, adds texture to bouquets and attracts pollinators. Plant in light, well-drained soil in full sun for the best results.

Flowers from September to October: Coneflowers, resembling daisies with drooping petals in pink or purple, are a beautiful choice. They prefer fertile soil, so mix in some peat-free compost before planting in spring. For texture, try fountain grass. Its plumes offer a soft, elegant touch to arrangements. It grows best in a sunny, sheltered spot with well-draining soil.

Laying new turf on the garden is easy and can quickly revitalise it. Spring is an ideal time to lay turf as the land is warming up and there is plenty of moisture in the soil.

Prepare the soil by clearing weeds, loosening compacted soil, and making sure the ground is level. Let the ground settle for a few days, then lay the turf, with slightly staggered joining points, like how you would lay brick. This ensures there are no gaps. Water during dry weather and leave it undisturbed for a few weeks to establish.

Many shrubs, including hungry roses, will benefit from a nutrient boost this month. Scattering slow-release fertiliser around the bottom of flowering shrubs and then raking it in lightly is effective. Water it in, and mulch with peat-free compost too.

This should feed your shrubs for several weeks. Just make sure to avoid feeding flowering shrubs, which prefer poor soil. Often, these are Mediterranean plants, like rosemary and lavender. Find out more about how to grow lavender at my YouTube channel, @daviddomoney.

From February, you can sow aubergine seeds indoors. Starting earlier in the season is beneficial, as they need longer to grow. If you plan to plant them out, sowing indoors in March is ideal, starting slightly later to avoid frost. They need at least 21C to germinate, so make sure your indoor location is nice and warm. Once seedlings appear, keep them somewhere between 16C and 18C in sunlight, and water regularly.

As the weather warms, it's time to gradually increase the frequency of watering. Many plants need reduced watering in winter, some needing no watering at all. But as we welcome spring, they come into growth and need more water to help them along. This can apply to houseplants too. Make sure you do some research on your plants to be sure or ask your local garden centre.

Alpine strawberries can grow from seed indoors in spring in trays of peat-free seed compost. All other strawberries can be planted in mid-spring, so make sure your soil is prepared now, or even get them planted. Strawberries grow best when given their own space, in rows or containers. Make sure the soil is fertile, well-drained, and slightly acidic.

Viburnums are popular and varied shrubs, some evergreen, whilst others are deciduous.

For a wonderful evergreen variety for year-round interest and lovely flowers this month, I recommend Viburnum tinus. These large shrubs up to three metres tall are dense and bushy, with glossy, emerald-coloured leaves for welcome verdant colour.

The blooms first appear in late winter, continuing into spring, each creamy-white with a pink tinge to the bud for some subtle colour. These flowers are fragrant too, for an all-around sensory sensation. In the autumn and winter, this viburnum producesblue-black berries for additional interest in the cooler seasons.

Plant these in autumn in moderately fertile, moist, but well-draining soil in full sun or partial shade for best results. Once flowering has finished in spring, prune to maintain their shape in the early summer.

The Incas and the Aztecs were the first people to cultivate tomatoes to eat and enjoy nearly 1,500 years ago. That's likely why the English word for tomato is derived from the Aztec word tomatl.

In Sweden, astonishingly there are approximately 70,000 trees per square kilometre of land. Plus, each year, around 400 million tree saplings are planted there, and only 1% of the total forest area is harvested.

Whilst it feels intuitive to eat a mint after a garlicky meal to combat the smell, it turns out apples are highly effective at counteracting garlic breath. According to a university study, they contain enzymes which break down garlic's odorous sulphur.

Leeks were a popular vegetable among Romans. Emperor Nero enjoyed them so much so he was dubbed Porophagus, which translates to 'leek-eater'.