There’s a beautiful poppy plant by the parsnips, which I’m doing my best to remember, so I can gather seed from it.

The first gourds are appearing now – some round pale ones and some green striped ones.

It looks like it might be a good pear year too. A few look a bit scabby, but most look good and healthy like this.

A lot of the flowers had gone over (rather early this year as it’s been so dry) so after doing all the deadheading, I made a start on clearing the front bed. The dead corn cockles are hiding the alliums and perennials and I don’t want them to seed down this year. I thought I’d be able to pull them out, but the ground was rock hard, so I cut them off. Rain is coming overnight and tomorrow, so hopefully the ground will soften a little with most of the rubbish gone.

There’s more work to be done – clearing and then digging out the roots. I need to feed the callicarpa again as it doesn’t look very happy. I have some good perennials in the bed, but I need more robust plants in there, having got rid of all the weeds that cover the ground. Adding a bunch of compost and leaves would be a good idea too.

I harvested a massive beetroot for Suzy. There are more big ones to come. I know I’ve watered that bed an amount, but it’s been so dry that the beetroot success is still a bit of a mystery to me.

I didn’t want the edges to get too long, so I did the strimming after work. It turned out that I didn’t need to do it all though, as the recent heat has stopped the grass growing too fast.

I noticed some movement on the bug hotel and saw a field vole on top, sitting in the evening sun. He stayed long enough for me to retrieve my phone from the other side of the plot (where it was recording birdsong on Merlin) and when he noticed me, he darted down a hole and then ran across the front inside. There are holes all over the plot, but maybe that’s his base.

The sunflowers are opening, as are the sweet peas. The Red Alert tomatoes are flowering well, but the Romas haven’t started yet.

I harvested some more radishes. It’s really old seed, but seems to be happy to grow. I need to sow some more.

Super hot today and in the end I spent my morning shift deadheading and didn’t do any feeding as planned. It’s so hot and dry that the plants on the far bank of the pond have possibly died. I gave them some more water today and I’m hopeful they’ll at least recover later. The thyme that died when I rejigged the pond now has new leaves, so fingers crossed.

Bed 9 is looking pretty good, though some nasturtiums are starting to turn, so I hope that deadheading them will work. Burying lots of seeds is clearly a great approach.

Some of the cucumbers need to be tied up, but that’s been left for now too. The first cucumbers are starting to grow now, along with the ornamental gourds. The tomatoes have opened their first flowers too.

I harvested a few radishes and the first enormous beetroot. I took one from the first row and was going to take another before I saw the even bigger one in the second row.

I went back to feed in the evening, when it was cooler, but more blinding. The tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, marigolds (which are just starting to flower!) all got tomato food. The rest was given general feed, including a few boundary things like the red geums and callicarpa. The veg and parsnips just got water.

I used the Merlin app to record bird calls and got the most amazing list in about 40 minutes:

• Chiffchaff
• Starling
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Linnet
• Magpie
• Blackbird
• Jackdaw
• Sparrow
• Song thrush
• Ring-necked pheasant
• Blue tit
• Goldfinch
• Wood pigeon
• Dunnock
• Robin
• Carrion crow
• Green woodpecker

Before setting off on my big shed tidy, I took some photos of the plot as it’s looking so good. There is still lots to come – sunflowers, sweet peas, runner beans, tomatoes etc…

I found more eggs in the pond, nearer the front, so I could get a better photo. The brown almond shape of the centre now makes me wonder if it’s lines of snail eggs looking like a cluster because they put it around the loose fronds of the hornwort. I also saw my first damselfly this year, flying just very briefly above the pond.

The shed has had a thorough tidy and clear out. I’m aiming to get some better cell inserts, trays and root trainers for next season, so definitely broken and unwanted items have been thrown out. I’ve kept some good seed trays and lids for now; they’re a standard size so might be of use. I’ve got rid of most of my copper rings as I don’t use them much any more. The slugs seem to have disappeared, so if I do manage to encourage them back to get frogs and toads, I can always make more rings.

Lots has grown in the last week and there was quite an explosion of colour. The first sunflowers have opened, but they’re only little. The coreopsis has bloomed, so now begins my deadheading work for real. 

The pond was a bit low from the hot weather and I’ve topped it up an amount. The pickerel weed has flowered for the first time, but the water violet has been pecked at again as it was above the water. I’ll leave the pot in case it grows again from the stem. The purple loosestrife has suffered in the heat and both plants have  dried up. I hope I might be able to revive them with some water.

I noticed a little lump of spawn on the far side of the pond. It’s rather late to be frogspawn – and the eggs are somewhat smaller, but that’s my best guess at the minute. It’s only a couple of inches across, so my hopes aren’t up for its survival.

I saw my 3 diving beetles all together and a wasp busy hovering around the water too. I also spotted a sparrow in the bird bowl too, but I haven’t yet managed to get a good enough view to see what they get up to in there. 

Lots of deadheading needed doing and I did lots of pick weeding too. Just some little nettles remain because I never got around to getting my glove.

I watered all the veg on a count of 2, rather than 3. So at least they’ve all had some. The grass is also dealt with. I did a big patch in the car park on 3, then did the entire plot on 1.

There’s another month before the onions are done, so I’ve moved the cosmos into pots, as they were running out of room. I’ve moved a couple of zinnias to spots in Bed 6 and now there will probably be enough room in that bed to simply spread out the rest of the zinnias.

Today was feeding day and although I went out at midday, the sun went behind the clouds from time to time to help out. I mixed up the 4 litres and then weakened it to about 6 litres before using. Everything important has been fed – just not the nasturtiums or much in the borders.

I gave a little bit to the left hand fern as it’s not looking as healthy as the others. I’m not worried about it yet, just keeping an eye on it.

A couple of the gourds look quite healthy after some rain. Maybe they and their sickly siblings will do better now. The sunflowers were fed too.

I’ve been watching a few stunted onions and I finally got around to feeling if they were firm or not. These weren’t, so went in the bin. One less healthy looking one was still firm, so I’ve left it.

Bed 1 is busy with bees thanks mostly to the borage. There are spots of other colours all over, with lots more poppies and corn marigolds to come. Next year I’m thinking the nature bed might be two or three of the thin beds to frame the veg.

The plot was freshly strimmed (Thursday), mown (Friday) and watered (last night) when I arrived, which was perfect.

I completely deadheaded the orange geum, taking off all the stalks, which took forever. There was lots of grass to pull out of the fence too and while I was head down in the bed I picked up all the bee sticks that had been thrown out by the woodpecker.

With the elodea gone, the hornwort has really taken off, so I took some out to make room. The pickerel weed has a flower bud now, which is exciting. Mum reached over and trimmed the veronica in the corner for me. There are a few new leaves on the thyme, so it may yet come back to life. I’m leaving it to see. I also saw a sparrow in the bird bowl for a moment before it took fright.

We propped up the front and right everlasting peas as best we could. Next year I’m determined to catch them before they take off with some willow fencing.

I’ve tied up the runner beans higher up now. Two of them are quite high. I also gave the direct sown cucumbers a loose string to guide them to the canes.

The zinnias from home have all been moved to the plot now. I never potted them on to the big black pots, which means that they rather used up all the nutrients and the few that are flowering just have little flowers. Three have gone into spaces in Bed 3 and five have gone into Bed 1. I did buckets of weeding in Bed 1, pulling up all the creeping weeds in the first couple of feet around the edge of the bed, revealing a panic sowing of poppies, like I found in Bed 6 recently. There are some weeds left in the middle, but I wouldn’t be able to reach to plant/deadhead anyway.

I cleared some space in Bed 3 among the bulbs for the zinnias. I also found what looks like a hellebore seedling. Good to know that the birds destroy the main plant, then crap it out 12″ away.

Bed 6 has enough cosmos for Bed 4 when the onions, so they can be moved when the time comes. The idiotic bendy ones at home are staying there. The nursery row of zinnias needs to be spread out a bit and I’ll find some other space in Bed 6, maybe Bed 9 too if a space if left among all the big nasturtiums, candytuft and sunflowers 🙂

The calendula has done well this year and makes me think I should do more next year to fill the spaces for bold colour. One of them has a mad flower head where the centre flower has done, but other buds are growing directly around it, not on the stalk.

The teasel has lots of greenfly, but it doesn’t seem to care. It’s difficult to try and rub them off, because it’s covered it hooked spines. More importantly, it has four flower heads now.

Bed 11 isn’t much, though the plants have grown since planting. A couple of the gourds have had flowers. Tomorrow everything is going to be fed, so let’s see if that helps.

It rained lots yesterday and so I had water to empty into the right hand butt. It’s now about half full and nothing needs watering for a little while. I put down some more grass seed on my bare patches as the week ahead is set to be warm and dry, so maybe the seed will germinate.

I did some weeding all around the boundaries, pulling out lots of grass and cutting back some brambles and nettles. I’ve deadheaded the heucheras and I can see some new leaves coming at the base. The first corn marigold and some poppies have opened in Bed 1, so it really feels like things are starting now.

The sweet peas have spread out quite well, so I’ve now tied them all in for the first time. I think I might have to wind at least one horizontal layer around the strings. Possibly the runner beans would benefit from this too, as they’re having a bit of trouble staying wound around the canes.

The direct sown cosmos and zinnias are wonderfully robust and I’ve now pinched out a number of them. I’m not sure where they’ll all end up, seeing as I’ve got good zinnias at home too, as well as silly bendy cosmos. There is definitely going to be a load of direct or outdoor sowing happening next year.

The bark at the bottom of the apple tree is peeling a bit and so I took some photos for Reddit and went through the tree looking for any other damage. At the far side I found some eaten leaves with remnants of web. Turns out those are from caterpillars and I should probably get back there and remove more of the affected leaves and have a look around for any other signs of them.

We’ve got lots of rain coming tomorrow, so no plot visit tomorrow. Instead, I checked on things today after a reasonable amount of rain this week. The rain buckets had gathered lots and the butt on the corner no longer moves if you bump into it.

Everything was fine in spite of the breezy weather recently. There are the first flowers on the runner beans. Flowers are coming around the plot and what I thought were Icelandic poppies now have round buds and I think they’re going to be corn marigolds.

More of the third row of parsnips has germinated, so no resowing necessary; they just needed the right conditions.

I took a photo of the back left corner of Bed 3 to remind myself that at this point it’s a bit empty – some weeding needed, and the bulbs are done. The opposite corner is fine though, which some great colour.

Some bark has started peeling at the bottom of the apple tree. Pulling it back shows a slightly damp, orangey area and of course there was a woodlouse hiding in there.

I’d read that I needed to get the pickerel weed lower into the water so as to cover the bottom leaves – and as if to labour the point I found that new roots had appeared from the base of the plant. I took it off its bricks and added some stones for weight.

I’ve noticed a couple of mosquito larvae in the pond, which I didn’t have last year. Maybe they’ll attract a new kind of predator.

The last tomatoes are finally in: Bed 2 now has 3 Romas and 4 Red Alerts. The rings are alternated with fence panels curled round to accommodate two plants, plus anything their neighbours wants to lean on. The leftover tomatoes of varying strength will be put into pots at home.

We’ve added some water to the water butts and I’m taking at least 4 milk bottles every time I go down there. A little rain is due in the week, which I hope will at least lightly water everything. Next weekend I should give everything a week general feed.

I did a mow on 1 and will need to do the edges shortly, but they’re not too bad. I did a round of weed removal from the lawn, going around with my weed tool and a bucket. There are a lot of creeping weeds like buttercups that I’d like to reduce. It’ll be quite a job to defeat them though.