Ok be honest, when did you last lift and divide congested hardy perennials in your garden?

You’re not alone if you are struggling to remember as it’s a job that I often overlook too.

And bless those perennials, they carry on doing their thing year after year without me giving them a second thought, I mean that’s why I planted them, to be reliable performers that look after themselves.

The problem with leaving perennials to their own devices for too long is that eventually the central parts of the plants grow less productive with a circle of young growth only coming around the edges. The soil they are growing in becoming more depleted of nutrients and they can start to invade neighbouring plants.

So a bit of dividing will give you healthy, vigorous plants that will continue to perform year after year. And it will give you the opportunity to multiply your plants free of charge.

Your three-point plan of action for dividing perennials:

1) Cut down the stems as low as possible, so that they don’t get in your way, dig around the clump, then prise it out of the soil.

2) Divide up the healthy young growth either by inserting 2 forks centrally and prising apart or use a spade to slice up the clump, I tend to always 'misfire' with a spade so I prefer to use forks or my hands to gently pull them apart to produce small clumps for replanting.

3) Replant as soon as possible, improving the soil by forking in some garden compost or manure and a handful of fertilizer, water in well. Alternatively pot up the new plants individually to build up size and keep in a frost-free environment over winter for planting at a later date.