Drawing up at the plot, I discovered that the foxglove in the front bed is faced mainly through the fence rather than showing its flowers to me inside the allotment. It’s a theme this year.

When I uncovered the middle bed I found two lovely toads and evidence of a little rodent nest. I edged bed as I’ve lost about a foot to overgrowth. Once that was done, I planted the sweetcorn. There’s a strip left perhaps for tomatoes. Meanwhile, Mum  finished painting  the inside of the shed white for me.

I uncovered the front bed and raked it even. While I was working, Hugh came to the gate, frightening the life out of me. He’d come to offer runner beans as mine were frosted. He’d heard on the grapevine/bean vine that I’d lost mine to frost. My replacements are now big enough to plant out though, so I’m fine. The two that are already in are big enough to wind around the netting.

I planted the gourds in the bed, each with a pocket of manure underneath, but not my usual deep hole / high mound set up.

Once all the gardening was done Mum and I put together the big shelving and put it against the back wall of the shed, adapting the slightly odd wall bracket supplied to screw into a corner vertical to hold it in place.