The morning was a bit frustrating after good runner bean and sweet pea harvest. I headed off to the garden centre for bedding plants for Bed 3, then to the nursery and then back to the garden centre, ultimately picking up two planters from the front of the shop. I dismantled the pots into their various parts, which were part bedding plants and part white fuchsias. They’ve now gone into Bed 3 with a heavy layer of compost added around them.

I’ve put the remaining stones and gravel into the pond. If the beach becomes low on stones again, I’ll just have to fish them out of the pond and put them back. Things had been rather displaced with evidence of bird bathing this morning.

It’s been a month since I fed the plants, but that’s now finally done again. Mostly with tomato food, but some general fertiliser for Bed 3 and the perovskias. There’s now a new cucumber to encourage. The onions, oca and veg were given water. The last sown seed for the carrots has germinated,  filling the holes.

More deadheading and before I did the mowing, I cut the borage back. It’s now easier to walk down the paths without being scratched. I’ve also made more room around the tomatoes and cucumber. I’ll take off more in due course, but I have visitors coming on Wednesday so I didn’t want to make it look too harshly cut back.

One left – no tomato; on the right – tomato uncovered! I need to look out for trimming the tomatoes too as they look a bit dense in their cages at the moment.

I like the idea of doing more sweet pease next year. If I do them (or anything else) on the netting again, I need to not worry too much about lobelia at the front – candytuft will do and is big enough to hold its own. The lobelia has become completely hidden under the leaning peas.

I did some weeding here and there. Having picked up another sack of coffee grounds at the office, I also finally sorted out my backlog. A bunch went straight onto the compost heap and the rest filled up my bucket.

I’ve harvested the garlic now. A pretty good harvest; just a few had rotted and went straight to the compost bin.

Visits to the allotment are quite generic at this time of year. Just weeding and deadheading and making sure everything’s ok. I’ve cleared the nigella out of Bed 3 and made a start at clearing / tidying the trellis bed now.

It’s going to take a while and I’ve still not got the plants right. While the toadflax and corn cockles have gone to seed, the everlasting pea has fallen forward onto it. I might need to give up on the surviving peas and find the best long-lasting perennials for that provide filler for longer. I think some larger scale logs would be good for better blocking and tessellation.

I did the mowing and managed to do some strimming before the cable ran out (actually it seized with plenty left, which I didn’t discover until John undid it at the office).

I’ve cleared out compost corner at last. The poppy had gone to seed. I’ve saved some seed, but I’m not sure that I’ll use it as the plant was pretty big. Getting into the corner and around the corner of the bin I found some new rat droppings, so I’ve reloaded the bait station.

I trimmed a little of the borage, but it’s going to need more attention. I’m behind on feeding according to my schedule, but there’s been a lot of rain recently, so that’s good. Calendula and nasturtiums are doing well. I’m particularly pleased with the calendulas I’ve managed to raise this year.

The garlic’s done now, so it’s time to take that up and leave the oca to grow.

Another round of deadheading today. On one trip to the compost heap I disturbed a young wren who turned out be one of three, who gathered on next door’s greenhouse among an alarm call from one of them.

I have a new gladiolus out in Bed 3 – one of the new bulbs I planted. No sign of much else, though I put in lots of bulbs for the summer. I also picked my first little bunch of sweet peas.

There are some black fly infestations, but not too bad. So far I’m just gently wiping them off where possible or cutting off the odd leaf.

The transplanted creeping jenny is still alive, so hopefully that will ultimately solve this problem area if the crows don’t get too involved.

The first tomatoes are here – these are the red  Alerts.

I did the mowing today and multiple buckets of deadheading. It takes a long time, but it’s fairly simple and is so worth it. Another lupin has been landed on by something jumping over the fence, so that got cut back.

I worked through multiple showers doing the weeding. The runner beans and sweet peas have been propped up a bit. They’re not doing too badly in understanding that I don’t like the job and they should just do the right thing themselves.

The borage and calendula is doing well. Both are coming up in pretty big plants. The cucumber is now big enough – hidden among the borage – that I’ve been able to tie it to the wigwam.  

Election day – and after voting a quick allotment visit. Some of the wood had been flicked into the pond as usual. Something (fox?) is clearly jumping over my fence by Mr B’s gate and crashing through my poor lupin. The first sweet pea has now flowered, with more buds on the way.

I’ve made another repair to the end of the pond, moving a paddle stone to cover the front wall and covering the empty space on the ledge with gritty mud and pieces of creeping jenny. I took a big bit from home, and a rooted piece from my own plants. I’ve managed to dangle at least one of the latter’s roots in the water with the hope that it will survive that way. Keeping the wood in place will be the real challenge as the birds like to flick it out of the way. I’ve tucked one piece half into the fold of the plastic, so I hope that will stay.

In other pond news, although I’ve not seen the snail again yet, I have noticed a couple of lines of snail eggs on the creeping jenny pot. So I should be set for a new community. Two shoots of hornwort have shown themselves and I need to thin the elodea a little. When taking the blanket weed out I discovered a new, coarser kind in the middle of the elodea.

I thinned the carrots out and resowed the holes in the carrot and beetroot rows.

The sweet peas are picking up, as is the candytuft in the same bed. I was afraid that they were going to be measly, but they just hadn’t come into their prime yet.

I watered the oca and garlic, and weeded and watered the onions. I didn’t have the energy to rake in feed around the carrot and beetroot, so watered them with some weak general feed with the hope that they won’t mind that.

Friday evening seems to be quite a good time to get the deadheading done ahead of the weekend. I filled a bucket with deadheading and a bucket with weeds, mostly because I cut down the huge weed by the compost bin (currently blocked by the enormous poppy) before it set seed.

The bark from the bank had been kicked into pond and it had fallen apart, so I’m clearly going to have to give up on this idea and turn this to soil and stones with a low-growing plant. Creeping Jenny is evergreen, so the best option to try and establish.

The first loosestrife flower has opened and it looks like that will be a pretty plant. Here’s to it self-seeding along the bank.

Also newly flowering is the callicarpa with tiny pink flowers. And the first cornflower is open in the woodland bed.

A day off for a bit more gardening, which turned out to be a fairly exhausting one in the hot sun. The big joy was another addition to the wildlife list: a snail in the pond.

I did the deadheading, giving the tangerine geum a lot of attention. I found a big pile of shield bug instars on a geum leaf, so left them well alone. I’d seen a shield bug earlier on, as if heralding the new arrivals.

I’ve fed the onions with a scattering of bonemeal and watered it in. I need to do the same to Bed 8 – and thin out the carrots.

The final marigolds from home have been put into Beds 6 and 7 to try and bulk them up a bit.