I went to pick up my secateurs to chop down a borage and didn’t find them, so my first job was to find wherever I’d left them last time. I headed to the apple tree, as I’d been cutting down the nettles … and found my trowel. The secateurs were in the grass by the trellis. Thank goodness for stainless steel.

There are a million nasturtium seeds all over the middle bed, so I probably don’t need to buy nasturtium seeds ever again, seeing as the trellis bed is about the same.

The bitter melon bed wasn’t too bad in terms of wetness, so I dug that one over. There was some slurping from it, so I tried not to dig it too much. I think that’s always the wettest bed, so it’s good to have got it done.

I did a preliminary weed of the runner bean bed. There’s still a row of carrots in there, so I didn’t do a proper dig, I just pulled up all the big weeds – and there were a lot of them. Disturbing the soil showed that the top of the carrot on the end of the row looked pretty big, so I gave myself a birthday present and pulled up a big ol’ carrot.

I started chopping down the verbena on the left hand side. It takes so long to do! I at least managed to clear a noticeable patch. I’m taking them down to the ground this year, or just above  if there’s any new growth visible.

The ground I’m revealing isn’t all that great. I’m cutting down leggy mint, there’s couch grass here and there and the ground just feels messy. I feel like I want to reduce the verbena, mint and lemon balm here and there, but I’m not sure I’ve got it in me! That’s how it wins …

I bagged up a dead viper’s bugloss in a plastic bag, head first, and put it in the stuffed shed. I’m hoping I might be able to save some seed from it. It’s a lovely big plant that the bees love, but the young plant isn’t as recognisable as borage.