The biggest bitter melon had split open this morning, which I had expected. If my photos at home turn out not to be good enough, then I’ve got some medium bitter melons still growing. As well as cutting this off for the compost, I had a few bits harvesting to do, which first involved finding the scissors that I’d left in the grass last time I was there. Thank goodness my stuff is stainless steel.

I harvested more gourds, including the first from the back bed, a couple of small sweetcorns, a few more French beans, some tomatoes and a few carrots. I had a good look at the runner beans and I believe they’re now done; there don’t seem to be any more flowers coming.

I tidied up the back bed quite a lot, putting a lot of material on to the compost heap, along with some sweetcorn stalks. Lots of dead or unnecessary foliage came off the back bed, making it easier to see what’s what. I also managed to stand the biggest gourd up a little straighter, revealing a little yellow patch on it. It’s going to be interesting cutting through that stalk when the time comes.

There were still some caterpillars on the nasturtium in the back bed. There don’t seem to be any on the bed of nasturtiums by the trellis, so they’re flowering quite prettily. I did a bit of weeding around the place, including some spiky things that had been annoying me in that bed. the thing by the shed is now clearly a weed, so the moment it opens a flower to show me what it looks like, it’s coming out.

My black-eyed Susan vine on the ledge is doing quite well, but you wouldn’t really know it, because most of the flowers have gone through the fence to face that way.

It would have been quite a good day to do a little digging somewhere as the ground was damp – I’d gathered 6 litres of rain without even the full complement of buckets out – but I’m feeling the pressure of photography with all the things I’m gathering, so I just did 1.5 hrs before going home to do some different work.