It was 18ºC today, perfect for a sunny birthday visit to the allotment. I finished the ledge first. The fleabanes turned out to be pretty massive and I’ve cut them back a little. I was going to leave them until the spring, but the overhang was damaging my border pole and encouraging mole activity. I removed a lot more thrift too for the same reasons.

I used the shears to edge the concrete slabs, which were very overgrown. They look very neat now. I’d prefer to get another mow in, but I don’t know if it will be dry enough again any time soon. A strim would really help though, even if I don’t take it all the way down; just a little more under control.

In the afternoon I finished all the deadheading, which all got added to the compost heap, which is pretty high now. Half an hour before sunset colour was still shining from the marigolds and cosmos in the plot. So they’ve been noted for late season colour.

The pond is clear, but pretty dormant. All the hornwort has sunk, but the forget me not has spread a little. The front ledge is also much closer to being covered too. Just a little more plant coverage is needed.

The borders need a bit of work now, but most of beds are just waiting for the first frost. Then I can clear them properly, do the remaining weeding and cover them. It should be a good bit colder next week, so maybe we’ll get a frost soon.

I made a start on the ledge this morning. I’ve taken down most of the everlasting pea, which has filled the compost heap. The thrift has really grown too big now and is covering the edge of the border pole. The mole has taken this opportunity to make annoying holes too. I’ve attacked one plant so far, splitting it in half and cutting back the overhang.

In the afternoon I raked up the first fall of leaves from the crab apple at home and mowed them up. I’ve put them into 2 black sacks that are liftable and they’ll go  down to the plot at some point.

 It’s still warm enough that I only need to wear my hoodie at the plot. I took down the rest of the sunflowers and chopped them up for the compost. The nasturtiums are still going gangbusters. I had to take the branch saw to the big one from Bed 6. There was only one head that still had seeds and I emptied those into the fence coconut.

I took the last verbenas out of Bed 1. Others have gone from the left border too. Anything that’s a nuisance or in the wrong place is coming out. Otherwise they’re staying for the birds to eat the seed. Then they’ll get pruned in the spring.

I did one bed of marigold deadheading and some more work on the cosmos. Those flowers don’t last all that long individually, but as plants the overall effect is longlasting.

I moved some self-sown cerinthe plants from Bed 1 to the left border, along with a self-sown foxglove. The erigeron here and on the ledge is big, but needn’t be cut back until spring. Following a bit of left border work I ended up pulling/digging up as much fenceline grass as I could all along. I’ve tidied up the fallen physostegia stems as they were making a mess. The other one has remained standing.

The rudbeckia Aries is still flowering, like the calendulas. It’s not hardy, but after the first frost I’ll see if it’s still ok.  I might be able to get it through the winter if it’s mild.

A morning off work to make up for a slightly wet weekend. My focus was clearing the rest of the weeds from Bed 1. I’ve taken most of the verbena out of the bed, but some of it is a bit entwined with the more valuable rudbeckia.

The mole is still piling soil up against my gate. I need some kind of edging to try and stop it. It’s not as if a hole lets it through the gate; the pile butts up against the wood of the gate. A similar bit of animal interference was evident on the log pile near the pond. Something big (a fox maybe?) had clearly had a bit of a dig in the pile and collapsed it a bit. I added some more, larger logs to the pile from Bed 1.

One log has also gone to the fern bed. I might saw its pokey bit off, but the birds might like to stand on it. This bed might get another log yet. I’ve also got a big bucket of bark that needs to be spread around. I think more logs will help keep the place tidy and reduce the amount of bark lost to the birds.

I did some deadheading of the cosmos, which are still flowering wildly. Rudbeckia and calendula are still going. Even the nasturtiums are still going. Bed 5 is suddenly full of them again, with a few flowers.

The helianthus did pretty poorly this year. The stems didn’t grow very high and there weren’t many flowers.

I managed to do a mow on 2. It took ages though as I kept having to empty the bottom of all the wet grass. Right at the end, the handle on the mower broke. The clips that hold it in place broke off, so it slides out with all the back and forth. I’ve put tape around it, which held well for the last stretch.

I did random weeding in Bed 8 and Bed 1 with big dandelions now gone from around the carrots. I also did a little weeding in the fern bed. There are different funghi on the logs (one of which has been pecked) and foxgloves have self-seeded all over, including in the folds of the ivy pieces (unless that’s just weeds?).

I cut down some finished sunflowers and saved a couple of small heads and put them in the cocnut that’s on the fence. While over there I found that I have an anise hyssop growing in one of the overgrown pots.

I could have done some more, but ultimately the smoke from the neighbouring bonfire sent me home.

Another mow on 3. Maybe I’ll manage to do a 2 tomorrow as it will be sunny again.

The hedgehog house covering is still pretty in tact. A bit of tape had moved somehow, so I just covered it with leaves again and threw a few more on from the apple tree.

I did another quarter of Bed 1, pulling up the done plants and digging up all the weeds. I pulled up the random carrot, but it was fairly stumpy and completely split on one side, so it’s gone to the compost bin.

There’s still an amount of colour in the bed, from the verbena, cosmos, calendula and rudbeckia. The far-side of the bed will be the next project.

I deadheaded all the cosmos and marigolds. The bumble bees are loving the cosmos. The sunflowers have still got a lot of seeds to offer. As they come done, I’ll remove them.   

It poured with rain yesterday, but the soil in Bed 1 was still wonderfully friable. I made a good start on clearing all the weeds and bad volunteers from the bed. I’ve done about half the bed. A few of the logs from the centre pile are very crumbly now, but there are going to be some good big ones that I’ll have to find somewhere to store before at least some of them eventually go to a new garden.

As part of the weeding I found another yellow flowered plant like the one by the apple tree. Turns out that it’s common fleabane. The fleabane in my borders is Mexican fleabane.

I unearthed three foxgloves and transferred them to the front bed, along with some flax seedheads.

The cosmos looks really good – lots of flowers. They’ve even managed to stay fairly upright having been staked last week.

I did some clearing up around the pond. Cutting back nettles and grass revealed a small log pile, so I’ve added more small logs to that. I took the last paddlestone off the toad hole right by the pond and re-covered that shelter with more logs. I’ve moved the paddlestone to the front ofthe pond and tried to glue it in place with molehill mud. Hopefully it’ll sit and settle.

The hornwort has sunk now, but the forget me not seems like it has started to expand again. I’ve taken out a little of the duckweed that’s growing very slowly.

I feel like the callicarpa has never really taken off – and there is no sign of berries this year. They like normal to acidic soil, so I took ⅔ bucket of oak leaves and chopped them up and mulched the plant. I dug them in a little, but didn’t want to disturb the roots.

I’ve finally mended the hedgehog house. I taped up the pecked holes, move some logs around and then covered house with the rest of the black bag of oak leaves. They were a bit wet and stuck together, so I’m hoping they might have some strength that way. I pinned some apple stick over the top as a vague deterrent for the birds who will no doubt pull the whole thing apart again. If I had some bendable chicken wire, that would be the answer.

I’ve put the last of the bark from the bag under the apple tree. What’s left in the bucket will have to go on the fern bed when the weeding is done, as a lot of that has disappeared. Happily, the weaker ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora) have started to grow again and the second in particular is showing new copper-coloured growth.

Another job that’s been on my list for ages: planting the allium bulbs from the front bed. I made a start on putting them into Bed 3 before the rain finally started later than forecast.

I did a mow on 3 and was very wet. I travel with a bucket to empty the bottom of the mower when it’s like this.

I cleared Bed 5 of the cucumbers and the wigwams. I uncovered a few little cucumbers, none of which were saving. I’ve left the nasturtiums to keep flowering.

The sunflowers in Bed 11 have gone now, so just nasturtiums and marigolds remain.

Bed 6 was the next to be cleared out and I took out weeds, candytuft and finished sunflowers. The garlic now has more room to grow in the spring.

The anise hyssop in Bed 6 are fairly healthy looking plants. The ones I had left in pots forever at home and then at the plot were still alive, but  completely pot bound. They do have small leaves coming at the base of the stalks though.    I managed to rip them apart to put some into Bed 6 and 3 into a big white pot.

I had a good variety of birds: goldfinch, long-tailed tit, dunnock, robin, great tit and magpie.

We picked all the apples off the tree this morning, not least to stop the destructive pecking from the birds.

Although the compost gourd hadn’t started to die off, the stalks were just starting to yellow, so I took the opportunity to clear the plant off the heap. They’re now in the grow house to ripen off a bit more, as some of the stalks were weeping a bit.

I finished off clearing the tomatoes, diggung up the roots and weeding around the marigolds. The soil was absolutely perfect for weeding, so I made sure I went back in the afternoon to do more. I cleared the weeds and sweetcorn stalks from Bed 11 and cleared the weeds from the empty half of Bed 7.