I deadheaded some bulbs and pulled up what grass I could here and there. Where it’s growing through things like the mint, I’m just having to pull up / snap off what I can.

Plum Corner has remained mostly weed-free, but the lemon balm has taken over a bit. I’ve decided to leave it for now, as I don’t want to damage other perennials. I’ll work on allowing for them to overpower the lemon balm, rather than vice versa. To the right, I’m putting in any other bits of verbena I find. For the most part, the verbena around the plot seems to have died away.

The carrots, beetroot and chard are coming up ok. I’m still waiting to see if the nipped onions will make a comeback.

Starting at the shed end, I began to clear the couch grass from the border bed. The soil has dried out an amount, but there was still an amount staying stuck on the roots I was throwing away. I moved cornflowers and poppies from Bed 7 and planted them around the physostegia and geum. There was one little leggy stem of cerinthe, which I’ve put in the second pot. Hopefully it’ll seed down from there and grow as beautifully as all the volunteers at home do.

I added more cornflowers and poppies on the other side of the physostegia, by the lupin. I had a few larkspur seeds in my bag, so I’ve sprinkled them. I have more clearing to do on the other side of the lupin and further up towards the gate. There are lots of cornflowers left and I’ve realised that the different-looking clump is corn cockle.

The robin visited while I was working and I had to yell at a rook for stealing mouthfuls of compost from Bed 1.

In the morning I noticed that something had bitten a lump out of the bug hotel wood. The muddy marks on bin below are unclear, but I assume it’s the rat, back to sharpen its teeth, rather than a low-flying woodpecker. In the afternoon though, suddenly some holes were plugged and bees were buzzing all around.