IN A short while it will be time to order the seeds for next year's tubs, baskets and bedding displays, so now is a good time to take stock of the plants that have done well in your garden this year.

At Brockhole, we have had good success with French marigolds this year, and sweet peas, dahlias, nicotianas and cosmos have all done well.

Some of the more exotic bedding plants, such as canna and castor oil plant, have been slow to make growth and have only just reached their prime by the middle of September.

At home in Cockermouth, our best bedding plants, for the second year running, have been impatiens or busy Lizzies.

Our worst have been the French marigolds, which have been troubled by snails and slugs all summer, and have never looked at their best.

If you have a heated greenhouse it's not too late to take cuttings of half-hardy perennials such as Argyranthemums, Helichrysum and Verbena for next year's displays.

Take pieces of non-flowering stems three to six inches long, cutting just below a leaf joint.

Strip off the lower leaves, and gently insert the cuttings into a pot filled with equal measures of sand and potting compost.

Water in thoroughly, cover the pot with a plastic bag and leave on a warm bench until the cuttings have rooted and start to grow away.

They can then be potted up and kept in the greenhouse until next spring.

I have to report that the climbing and runner beans I have been growing in grow-bags have (predictably?) failed to produce a bumper crop as I hoped.

I suspect they may have been short of water while we were on holiday, they have subsequently dropped a lot of leaves and failed to set many of the pods.

Curiously, the old-fashioned climbing French beans have fared better than the modern runner beans, but they are both substandard and I will be looking for a different vegetable to grow in the yard next year.

A reader has written to me suggesting that I should not have recommended taking the old flower heads of lavender plants, leaving them on for goldfinches to eat the seeds in the winter months.

While I agree with this in principle, it is better for these particular plants to be dead-headed now, otherwise they have a tendency to become woody and fall apart in the middle.

I think I can afford this luxury as there are many other plants throughout the garden with seed heads left on especially for goldfinches and other birds to enjoy, including teasels, cardoons, ornamental and just plain weedy thistles.

Slides enclosed: Some of the hanging baskets entered in the Kendal Pride competition this summer.

Jobs for the gardener this week

4 Scratch up the surface of any bare patches in the lawn, using a garden fork or rake.

Sprinkle with grass seed, which will germinate quickly and cover the gaps.

* Lift bedded out begonias while still in leaf, put in boxes in a dry shed or greenhouse to dry out and die back gradually.

Remember to label them or note the colours to aid planting out next year.

* Plant daffodil bulbs in rough grass.

When planting them in borders, mark where they are so you don't dig them up again later!