The bird feeder had been knocked down again, so a better solution is necessary. Looking through the fence, Mr B has his feeder much lower on a little tree and has surrounded it with some wire fencing. The feeder was smothered with sparrows and a couple of greenfinches, with a collared dove on the ground. Far more bird life than I get in my plot.

For the first time ever, the pond was clear to the bottom. Mum reached in and removed two fallen bricks. They’re staying out for now. The depth is about 15” and I’d like it to be more like 18″. It’s not clear where the paddle stones are yet; they may be under other fallen stones, but need to wait for water to clear again before we can check that.

We strimmed the whole plot and I ran it over the top of the particularly long grass in the paths. It looks so much better now and I’ve put some seed down on bare areas. It needs some judicious treading/stamping to repair the lumps and bumps it’s developed over the winter.

On my way out at lunchtime, I saw the light rippling off the surface of the pond and reflecting on the stones, and spotted a small black diving beetle in the pond, which was very exciting.

In the afternoon I prepped the onion bed with some leaf mould (disturbing a huge number of ants, but there were no birds around to eat them) and a layer of compost. I’ve put in two full rows of onions, plus one at the end by the shed.

The park logs have been distributed, but not settled in as weeding needs to be done first. I added a good piece of wood to cover the liner behind the loosestrife and behind the sweet flag. I’ve now abandoned the idea of covering the liner by the fencepost though as I’ve discovered that creeping jenny has already rooted further down of its own accord. Maybe it’ll be the answer for the front edge too as it’s reasonably evergreen.