This morning I cleared the stumps of the sweetcorn and chopped them up for the compost heap. Later the bed was raked and watered and I sowed the mustard seed. The zinnias and JBLs are still in place for now.

I’ve done more bramble control, cutting it back to the chicken wire. I’ll be able to get at more once the everlasting peas are completely cut down. But it’s good work and I’ve stopped two huge limbs that had come over the top of the fence and were touching the ground.

I took off a few long apple branches in order to get into the corner. It’s really gone mad, with long crossing limbs and will need a lot of thinning before next year. I hope I can do it myself.

I cleared up all the dropped apples for the compost and also picked all the scabby pears for the bin. The tree is now empty of fruit, but I took home a couple of pears that D scrumped from C’s trees overhanging her new plot next to mine.

Although I’ve made a good start on clearing the plot, there’s still a lot of colour thanks to the marigolds, petunias and zinnias. The helianthus is coming into flower too.