My feet were wet by the time I reached the plot, thanks to long wet grass everywhere. The ground by the shed was a bit squelchy and I can still see water in the pole hole in the bitter melon bed.

I decided to start my digging in the elder corner, which is the highest, driest place. It turned over pretty well and I picked out what weeds came to the top, but left anything small that disappeared out of sight. I pulled up lots of tree roots (incidentally, Mr B has the same mixed feelings about killing the tree as me) and scooped up an amount of leaves etc for the compost.

I ended up clearing the little bed too, harvesting a good bunch of carrots and pulling up the dead flax plants. I collected all the seed, as well as from a few plants elsewhere. I resued a lot of Californian poppy seeds too, so I can scatter them elsewhere.

I thought I’d got all the carrots, but while I was digging, another flash of orange popped to the top.

I finally cut back the nettles and brambles that were coming through the fence and got to the apple tree. I scooped up a bucket of soil from the square bed and used half of it to try and prop up the stake and the other half to help the tree stand up. The elastic was down on the ground, doing nothing, so I’ve re-bound it much higher up and tried to pull the tree up as much as I could.

It’s certainly far more upright than before, but still not great. I shall see if I can get advice on how to give it a drastic chop this winter.

I tried to get the last apples from it, but it was only willing to give up two.

The rudbeckia and a few calendula are still giving colour and I also found a pretty little clary in the flower bed. The flower bed which needs weeding.