In an effort to get a little ahead with water, I took a full set of bottles down to the plot and watered what I could before dinner. Then later in the evening, I took down another set of bottles and put them straight into the water butt, bringing it up to something like half full.

Plant-wise, I’d suddenly remembered that I was meant to be taking the sideshoots off the Pine Bumble Bee tomatoes. They’re different-looking, leggier cordon plants anyway, but there were a number of shoots that needed removing, plus a few bits of old foliage. The point is to keep air flowing well around the plants.

I have visitors coming in a few weeks, so I did more fingertip weeding in an effort to keep on top of things. I cut the pear tree geum right down and there are a number of new shoots coming up.

The poor maligned mimulus is also trying again with new shoots!

The gaillardia is almost open now, and there’s another one coming along.

It’s also now clear that the plentiful seedlings that are around the front of bed 1 are going to be candytuft. So it *is* easy to grow!

It is also clear that the ledge needs another renovation. Bind weed keep coming through the fence, there are a lot of weeds and now that the nigella is done, there’s not much colour. A few perennials have either been damaged, or didn’t turn up at all this year. The daisies on the left also need to be cut down and controlled somehow before they take over. Only a couple of my purple bell vines remain, others seem to have been eaten.

I’ve read that borage seeds down very readily, so I’ll likely gather some seed and try and get it going along the ledge. Although my plants are not very tall yet, it can be 3 feet tall, which on the back of the ledge would be a reasonable height to try and mask the view. Some longer-lasting colour is also needed.