I went down after work to spray the poorly tomato. It’s got green aphids and blackly all over the poorly leaves. Hopefully I’ve caught it soon enough, though they’ve all been there days already.

I discovered that blackly and greenfly have spread themselves all over the plot. So tomorrow, when the sun goes behind the clouds after lunch, I’m going to be dowsing everything in sight with soapy water.

A couple of the bitter melons look poorly. One’s had two dodgy leaves from the day after transplant. I’m hoping that removing the bad leaves and doing the soapy water treatment will help out. The biggest plant is still doing fine.

The big zinnia at the plot and the zinnias left at home have got things buried in their leaves, which are killing the leaves. I’ve pulled off the affected leaves and fortunately the plants are doing their best to grow replacements. I could do without a year battling pests.

I went to pinch out the dahlia and then discovered that something has beaten me to it. Growing the dahlias from seed last year was so much easier than all this palaver. Maybe this one will be left alone now and will act as though I pinched it out …

In happier news, the two sown yin yangs have now come up. The sweet williams have sprouted in their pot too. The fleabane deserves a photo too. It was one of the original plugs and used to be a floppy nuisance, but now the plants are good pads of colour around the place.