I did another shift of cutting down lemon balm at the front, a bit of weeding and a lot of edging. When I was cutting near the compost bin a male slow worm suddenly appeared and made its way across the ledge, up over the backed and through the fence. I hope he’s helping with my slug population.

There’s something else enjoying my compost heap too – there’s a run through the gate and up the front of it – and the other day the bucket in front of it was out of place. Let’s hope mouse rather than rat …

I uncovered a few big slugs when I was edging and so stopped to throw some slug pellets down around the place, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

I edged around the back bed and managed to get under/around the creeping vines. I also managed to redirect the one that had crossed the gap to the runner beans and had firmly attached itself with tendrils in three places.

I’m hamster-sitting, so I did a little bit of thinning of the carrots in front of the runner beans and found one to take home to Pipkin and Whiskers for tomorrow. They’ve already had little bit of runner bean.

I found the other cob that had been a bit damaged. I’ve brought its silk over the top and covered the opening as a way to protect it further. I’m not sure that would suit the other one as the damage is greater, but I’ll check.

The black eye susan vines aren’t particularly wide, but they’re doing ok in terms of height and flowering. Just not exactly vigorous!