The first pear was lying on the grass this morning. It’s a little hard still, but something has had a nibble. The others on the tree are definitely too hard to think about picking at the moment.

I did a lot of weeding, tidying and edging on Bed 7, as well as the facing edges of all the surrounding beds. I chopped off dead gourd leaves and vine lengths, as well as lots of long dry leaves on the sweetcorn. So it all looks much tidier now. The little round green gourds are starting to turn orange, but the pale ones are staying that way.

I went back to the plot before tea, after a hot afternoon spent hiding at home. The ledge was glowing beautifully in the sunshine and just before this, a cabbage white had been sitting on the verbena.

I moved on to weeding and tidying Bed 1, which is in need of attention the most. The borage and vipers bugloss are all absolutely alive with buzzing bees. I just wish that the plants would stay standing up. I’ve dug up an amount of that clover-like weed that comes from little tiny bulbs. Unusually I was able to dig up clumps of the bulbs (the time of year?) and many were stuck to a kind of mother bulb – like the huge one above.

I’ve cleared around the edge of about half of the perimeter so far. Some of the vines seem to have died back already. The leaves are crisp and the stems are pretty much dry. I’ve trimmed back the foliage and all the rubbish so once I’ve done more of that I’ll be able to follow the vines completely and know what it’s safe to cut. One of the pale gourds has already torn off the vine and I think the others won’t be far behind.

The rest of the gourds are still growing beautifully, so they’ll be in the plot for a while yet.