I did the edging at last, which makes the plot look much nicer. In part because the grass was still dewy in the shaded areas, I did it in bits, mixed with other jobs. I made a small start on apple pruning, removing a few obvious overlaps, some canker and a couple of small dead branches. The canker is a new appearance this year. Two apples came home as they were on a long, hanging branch that’s now gone.

The first bit of weeding in the left border has now been done, but I realised I’m never going to win over the grass. So I added a length of the really old wavy edging to boundary from where the pond ends to where the physostegia no longer has a hole and is back against the fence. I pinned it in place and then built up the soil level a bit with pond soil. In the weeded gap along the fence I added a few verbena plants from the nursery.

Among all gradual tidying (the compost heap is heaving!) I pulled up the dead corn cockles and spread the remaining seed all along the back of the border. They’re attractive flowers and make good upright structure when they’re dead.

I did some more digging for the pond and have started to pile soil on Bed 1. I’ve gone about a foot down in the centre and have reached the clay subsoil, which is hideously hard. One good thing is that although I have an eye on not digging out what I shouldn’t (eg for shelves), I can tell from where I’ve stood on the shore that it’ll be possible to rebuild, mould and compact wherever needed.