A pretty nice day, with some sun and the first sighting of the spitfire. With the sun coming back, algae is starting to grow in the pond, but it’s not a problem yet. I need to keep an eye on it though.

I did all the cutting down, except for the veronica and helianthus as they haven’t started regrowing yet. More bulbs are showing, including lots of the crocuses in the shed pot; some of flowers a bit nibbled, which is probably a mix of birds and slugs. I cut back a few handfuls of grass at bed edges and found some small slugs hiding in there.

Having been cut back, the coreopsis has a bit of a hole in the middle, which gets covered when it’s in bloom. It’s a bit of a sign for dividing it though. The cerinthe that overwintered has collapsed into leggy branches. I’ve cut off the dead bits, but I’m not sure if it’s going to grow from the bottom, require a trim, or just get pulled up. That said, it’s started flowering, which is crazy.

The garlic is growing again; I need to find out when to expect to harvest it this time around. There’ll then be an empty bed to consider.

I saw the robin and blue tit, and heard the wren. It was still quite wet underfoot in spite of the sun. I didn’t do any weeding, but with all the cutting down done for now, I think that’s it for the allotment for the time being. I need to get my head around what this year’s plan is so I know what seed trays and seeds I want.

Time to prune the pear tree. It was much bigger than I had realised, with lots of new growth. I’ve really thinned it out and stopped branches heading straight for the fence. I ended up taking off a whole branch at the back due to a bad cut with the loppers (not all my cuts have been perfect for various reasons). It goes back to the strange cluster of sprouts in the middle of the tree. I wonder if I should saw it off, but that might leave a big wound.

I took some long branches off the elder to stop it (a) being a nuisance, and (b) just being a pile of long whippy branches. I’ll get Mum to thin out a few more higher up. I’ve kept the really long branches for now. I wonder if at least parts of them might be useful for construction at some point.

In the afternoon I cut up all the prunings, including the small pile from last year, and the previous year’s few branches I’d kept and not used. About a bucket and a half of pieces went onto the compost heap. Pieces I couldn’t cut, but which were of no use, will go to the council compost. I’ve kept back some pieces for possible nature use, plus some larger, trimmed branches to put around a bird feeder, like I have already.

While I was doing all the cutting I saw something suddenly move under the plastic of Bed 9. It must have disappeared down a hole, as disturbing the sheet didn’t cause any further movement.

When I put the twigs on the compost I noticed that my leaf bags had been torn open, so all those decomposing leaves have gone into the wooden bin. I’ve tidied up where the bait station sits and put it onto some wood, as all the digging had pushed mess into the station.

I had lots of birds on the app today: robin (which seems quite friendly this year), great tit, greenfinch, sparrow, wren, dunnock, red wing and my first fieldfare.

I’ve got a couple of little gloopy balls in the pond, but I think it’s more likely to be algae than eggs.

I had the perfect day for doing the apple tree at last. Cloud cover, not too wet underfoot – though it was pretty squidgy by the tree. There are some dips and holes that are going to need to be remedied in better conditions.

I used my loppers for the first time. They take a little wrangling as you have to get the cut in the back of the blades, but they did the job beautifully. I took off some pretty big branches, but didn’t need to use the branch saw, which was a great bonus. Only one large branch fell into the abandoned part of the back plot.

Tomorrow the sun will be out, and I’ll do the pear tree and take some branches off the elder to stop it being a nuisance. I need to look at the hawthorns too.

 

It has been so unbelievably rainy and wet this year. I think there are a few places in the country that haven’t seen a dry day. Today was sunny and cold and the water had drained enough for me to get down to the allotment. The path and grass were wet and muddy, but my plot wasn’t underwater at all.

I’ve booked Friday off to see if I can finally do my apple tree on a cloudy day.

A few bulbs are coming up in the borders: some crocuses in multiple beds and a single white crocus in the pot by the shed. There were a few yellow crocuses; let’s see if the sparrows eat them.

The pulmonaria are flowering very nicely and there are a couple of tiny snowbells at the end of the bed.

Over in the wetter left border, a few scilla are coming up. They’re quite robust and look a bit like hyacinth at this point.

The garlic looks pretty good – has it grown more?

The remaining parsnips have started regrowing their tops. I dug up what I could fit in my bag / comfortably carry, which included a couple of very big ones. The rest will be much smaller and it will probably be possible to bring them all home at once.

It was cloudy all day today, so it could have been apple pruning day, but it was more important to get the bulbs in the ground. The nut feeder had fallen out of the tree, so I placed it in the pear tree and the blue tit soon arrived and seemed perfectly happen with the new location. I could hear at least two robins singing for quite a while.

I’ve finally put some more chaenorrhinum seed in the soil around the pond – mostly along the front, but also some thrown on the other two edges. The ones that have already grown have stayed nice and stubby.

Bed 3 – miniature tulips, front corner. A few crocuses at the back. There’s really not any room for more in this bed.
Pear tree – some crocuses, possibly some Siberian squill?
Front border – large alliums at the back
Shed pot – crocuses

Fern bed – bluebells, mostly along the front, with a few further back

Triangle – alliums, back and sides

Woodland bed – Siberian squill (found a wood anemone and other bulbs coming up, and the first pink on the lungwort)

Left border – Siberian squill

Ledge – alliums at back, Siberian squill

The final handful of crocus bulbs has gone into a round terracota pot at home. I put a bit of leaf litter over it to deter or invite digging.

The mole is making lots of holes outside the gate; it’s starting to look like a little network that might cave in one day.

The garden centre was promising half price bulbs, so I headed there to see if there was anything that appealed. It then turned out that all the bags were £1 each. I came away with £40.95 worth for £5. I really need to remember the end of year/season sales for plants and seeds. Crocus and the RHS and busy offering all kinds of reductions too.

• 5 x miniature tulips (mixed) – March/April
• 10 x English bluebells – May
• 50 x siberica (Siberian squill) – March/April
• 60 x crocus (species mixed) – February/March
• 25 x alliums (border mixed) – May/June

Tulips – 10cm tall; they can go in the front left corner of Bed 3.

Bluebells – 30cm tall; in the fern bed. A few of the previous bluebells are coming up in the pots. We’ll see if they do anything beyond a bit this year.

Siberian squill – 15cm; some can go in Bed 3. I’ll put them in groups in the borders where they won’t be too much of a nuisance.

Crocus – the photo shows mostly white and purple. It was the yellow ones that were destroyed in 2024. I’ll put some in Bed 3 and near the pear tree. They’d suit the ledge too.

Alliums – 60cm; purple, lilac and white. They look like they have quite rigid stems, so hopefully they’ll be fairly upright. Front border, ledge and triangle.

 

The plot is now done for this year. I’ve tied string around a couple of branches on the apple tree as a reminder to evaluate them for removal. I think the one at the front would make a big hole, so it might just be shortened. The one on the right would probably help to thin things out.

Bed 1, half of Bed 7 and Bed 11 have been weeded and covered. I took the rudbeckias out of Bed 1 and moved them to the left boundary, particularly to the rough spot by the shed. We’ll see if they come back next year.

I weeded Bed 6, and the garlic and anise hyssop are now left to see what they do in the spring. I dug upa few more parsnips for Christmas. The first ones were quite small, so I kept going until we had enough. Next time, I’ll head to the left end of the middle row; it looks like there’s a big one there.

About half of the triangle still needed weeding, so that’s now done, with lots of rubbish is gone. The big geum has died off in the middle, so I dug up the woody bit and am left with two smaller, separate plants.

We saw a sparrowhawk chase a small bird, which dived around the elder, meaning that the sparrowhawk couldn’t follow. Otherwise, I was accompanied by a couple of great tits, a couple of blue tits, and the robin. I also spied the dunnock through the fence.

The pond is set for the winter. The candytuft has gone great guns at the back. In the spring I need to sprinkle some seed among the pebbles I put on the front shelf to try and get some roots holding all that together.

A beautiful day after a lot of rain and cloud. The plot was no longer underwater and not too squidgy, so that was good. The veronica by the pond had some flowers on it and I saw a creature of some kind in one of the pots, so there’s still life in this corner.

I’ve straightened the robin’s nestbox at last. The lining has ripped away so I don’t know whether it would be worth trying to make it more windproof. Moss maybe?

I had to cut back some very overlapping branches to get my ladder in and that led to my starting to prune the apple tree. It’s huge compared to what Matt reduce it to in early 2023. It’s going to get a big haircut this winter and I’ve made a start, with a pile of branches now growing on Bed 9. It’s difficult to see in the photo, but the fence side already lets me through more easily.

I dug the self-sown foxgloves out of Bed 11 and planted them in the boundaries. The antirrhinum from Bed 1 has gone into the front border and the coreopsis has been moved into the terracoota pot where the chive seeds never grew.

Mum and I covered most of the beds between us. Just Beds 1, 6, 7 and 11 to weed and finish off.

We’ve had a lot of rain and the plot was underwater for the first time this winter. Back to the old way of walking round the right hand side and/or just having soaking feet.

I pulled up all the carrots and all the beetroot. A couple of the carrots were white, which was weird. The beetroot were a mix of big and small; only a couple were a little damaged. The carrots were quite damaged by carrot fly, so need some doctoring. I should harvest them earlier for freezing. I also battled some more parsnips out of the ground, which are wonderfully crowded and a range of sizes.

There’s new fungus on the compost heap. It took a while to identify, but it’s wood blewit. It’ll fade to brown with age and often appears after the first frost, so that adds up.

I was accompanied by multiple blue tits and great tits while I finished weeding Beds 2, 4, 5 and 8, and then raked them over. Any good greens have been left to rot. They’ll be covered next week. The other beds aren’t that far off either, so I might get done next weekend if it’s dried up enough.

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Today’s main job was digging up the callicarpa. Fortunately it didn’t have a very big root ball and it was easy to pull out the few seedlings and bulbs contained in the soil. I’ve planted it in a big pot at home with some crumbly sticks and chopped leaves mixed into the compost. Most of the compost was wet and it is going to rain tomorrow, so no need to water – and hopefully it’ll be able to drain better now.

I cleared the rest of the calendula from Bed 1, leaving the rudbeckia just in case it manages to flower again. There’s a snapdragon that I want to transplant and I’ve finally worked out what the mystery plant is – a new coreopsis. That’s worth potting up for the future too. Other than those jobs Bed 1 is pretty much ready to cover.

The front paddlestone had fallen all the way to the back of the pond, so I’ve stuck pebbles into its mud instead. The paddlestone now forms a new hidey hole. Maybe I can get some ground cover or more creeping jenny to take among the pebbles.

The ditch log is very much part of the boundary now, with plants nestled either side – and even growing in its crevices. I’m so pleased I went the extra mile and rescued this one.

I harvested a three more reasonably sized parsnips for family, plus a few carrots. I need to take up all the carrots next time as the carrot fly have rather taken hold.