While most vegetable gardeners will have made their main sowings for the year, remember it is still not too late to make direct sowings of peas, runner beans and dwarf beans to produce a welcome late summer crop of these favourites.  Now the soil has warmed up germination should be swift and growth vigorous.  Why not try our new and exclusive Dwarf Bean Trofeo, a heavy cropping, white-seeded variety with dark green, glossy stringless pods?  It has excellent resistance to most common bean diseases, so the plants remain ultra-healthy.  Any surplus crop can be frozen for later use.  How about Runner Bean Scarlet Empire – an improvement on that great old favourite Scarlet Emperor.  It was bred to have greater disease-tolerance whilst still retaining that great, old fashioned flavour.  We believe it will soon establish itself as one of the best and most popular runner beans. If you have hanging baskets, bear in mind they will often need watering twice a day, especially in warm, dry or windy weather, as the compost tends to dry out much quicker than soil in the garden.  A weekly feed with a good quality plant food will also benefit plants in baskets and in other containers. Dead-heading container and bedding plants not only keeps the display looking at its best, but encourages a longer flowering season, as more blooms are produced to replace those which are spent. Looking ahead to next year’s flower display, it is interesting to note that many of the spring and summer flowers which we regard as ‘cottage garden’ favourites are biennials which can be grown from seed sown now.  The term ‘biennial’ refers to a flower which blooms the year after sowing and then dies. Seed of biennial flowers can be sown now through to early July to provide welcome and nostalgic colour next year – and virtually all of them, such as sweet Williams, foxgloves and Canterbury bells, are very easy to grow and manage.  They do require a little patience, as you do not see the result of your work until next April onwards.  The wallflower, a once undervalued late spring performer is coming back into fashion.  It is available in a good range of generally warm, rich colours, all with that intoxicating, almost spicy fragrance.  Monarch Fair Lady Mixed and Dwarf Bedding Mixed are two of the very best.  Traditionally they are inter-planted with tulips, but they look equally good on their own and as most of our varieties grow to no more than around 18in they are also good in tubs, especially when planted close to the house so their rich fragrance can be appreciated. While seed of most biennials can either be sown in short seed-beds in the garden or in trays of seed compost, wallflowers only really thrive if they are sown direct in the soil rather than in trays.  Wallflower seed can be sown in a seed-bed in much the same way many gardeners sow brassica seeds.  Once the seedlings are two or three inches tall they can be planted out to another spot in the garden, spaced about four inches apart before being transplanted to their flowering positions about 12 inches apart in the autumn.   Returning to brassicas, Brussels sprout and autumn/winter cabbage and savoy plants can now be set out to their cropping positions.  Firm them in well to minimise wind-rock and water well until they are established in their new quarters.  Marrow and courgette plants can also be planted out, giving them enough room in which to spread.  Give them plenty of water and an occasional feed and they will produce bumper crops in the weeks ahead.  Pick courgettes when no more than about 6in long and before they start becoming marrows.