Mid August is the time to find young seedlings grown in tiny pots through the propagation stages which can sometimes prove difficult.
All you have to do is pot them up into a good general purpose compost and then just add water.
You will mainly find winter flowering pansies and primulas on offer.
But the season is short and supplies stop arriving in early September so these will be sold swiftly.

Be quick if you want to benefit from ready grown young plants. This job is much easier than growing plug plants in spring since you will not have to worry so much about keeping your plants at the right temperature – assuming a normal summer!

>> Experienced gardeners and indeed readers of this column will please forgive me for repeating one of my favourite tips.
When bulb time comes around we select from a wide range laid out temptingly in the garden centres.
We look forward to the spring colour these plants will give us. Later though, we are told to leave the bulbs in the ground with their green leaves for as long as possible so as to maximise flower size for next year.

The leaves are the means by which the plant makes food and therefore increased bulb size. This leads to an "untidy" garden, while we wait for the foliage to die down.
Tying the leaves into a knot has been tried but light hitting the foliage surface will be reduced greatly, so that is not recommended.
The suggestion is to plant your bulbs in pond planting baskets – find the largest you can buy, preferably the ones used for water lilies.
With your bulbs in these, the roots and moisture can pass through the mesh. When they are finished you lift the entire mass and plant it in a quieter part of the garden where the bulbs can continue to build for next year's display.

Of course there are lots of other seasonal plants that you can do this with and you could grow on replacement plants for the bulbs in order to do an instant swap.
Often you are invited to "fill a bag" of bulbs. This is a great way to market them, and indeed buy. It should work out cheaper than buying the same bulb in a pre-pack with a colour label on it.

Make sure you compare bulb size when looking at the price. If you feel you would like more than one colour, it is a simple matter to place a piece of paper with the name of the bulb below, forming a layer for the next one. In this way you can try more than one variety in one bag.
>> Lots of us will be busy harvesting rainwater. There are clever rain trap devices which collect water as it travels down the side of the pipe, into a tray with an outlet to the water butt.

When the butt is full the excess water flows down the original pipe. This is fine but as with all guttering systems it is subject to debris such as leaves entering the system, so do take the time occasionally to check it is working efficiently.

My water butt is a little distance away from the pipe. This does not matter. Water finds its own level and you can site your storage tank wherever you like providing your connecting hose stays below the level of the trap and the inlet.

Noticing that it wasn't filling very fast I disconnected the pipe and swiped it on a shed wall to dislodge a plug of debris blocking the pipe.