I have a few fairly short sunflowers out now, which should act as a reminder that even if I only manage to raise crappy seedlings, they get stronger when planted out.

I dug up the King Edward potatoes, which had a small harvest between the two plants, none of which was very far down. We’ll see how the Caras do from better seed potatoes, but the same growing conditions.

I’ve decided to start tidying up now, pulling up more onions, and cutting down the dried parsnip trees. The furthermost sweet peas were done, so I’ve taken them down, letting bits of dry leaves just sit on the soil. My plan this year is to get cheap horse compost (5 for £25) and add a reasonable layer to all the beds. I haven’t really fed the beds at all for a while. I might add some content from the leaf bins, and then in the spring I’ll see if I can add some compost too. Generally, bulk the beds up and stop them being such dust bowls. Then that will be a better setup for trying the allotment while at the house, without spending too much to do so.

I’ve saved some parsnip seed, but I don’t know if I’ll keep it. The ground is littered with dropped seed, so this will be an experiment in whether the birds eat it or whether they germinate more freely than when they’re deliberately sown.

It’s earlier than usual to start tidying, but with a house on the horizon, I might as well start and draw a line under such a hot, dry, difficult year.

The birds were probably mostly hiding from the heat, but I heard a buzzard and a whitethroat.

After work, we rallied ourselves and went to the plot to pick some beans. Some Roma tomatoes and small cherry tomatoes were ready too. The small tumbling ones from the garden centre are really small and not worth it. Red Alerts are so much better.

I watered the beans, the struggling nursery plants and put a little on the surviving sweet peas. There are no more onions yet; they’re still quite firm in the ground. Lots of plants in the allotment are crispy or suffering. We haven’t had measurable rain for well over a month.

I also found the battery, which was just sitting in the grass, not in the shed. I’d only moved it a few metres.

I’d left the battery at the allotment, so went to get it and do some deadheading. I found the battery under the ash tree, put it in the shed – and then left it there. (4/8/26 spoiler alert: no, I didn’t)

I deadheaded the sweet peas, did most of the coreopsis and tidied up a bit more of the everlasting peas.

Some of the onions looked pretty dry, so I harvested all the ones that came up easily. However, loads of them were soft on the bottom. All to do with drought / irregular watering. Damn lack of rain. The first runner beans and a bunch of tomatoes were harvested too.

I added butt and tap water to the pond and cleared out a pile of weed to make a little clear water. It’s still very low though and needs a major refill. I saw another damselfy larva. Apparently some species can take a few years to go through this stage.

I did a mow on 2 to keep things tidy. That didn’t take long as there were no stops and starts. I fed the birds and there are lots of pears on the tree. I also noted a number of bees and insects on the mint flowers, so keeping a pot of that is worth considering for the house.

I fed all the tomatoes and beans, and gave a bit to the sweet peas too. I need to deadhead them, but they look good nonetheless. The everlasting peas have already gone over and I need to get up on the ladder to just tidy them up.

The next job was to tackle the bramble on the trellis border. Every time I’ve been down, it’s seemed like another huge stalk has come over the fence. It had really gone wild and looked like it was pushing the fence over. I was at the plot for 5 hours and about 3 of those hours were spent on the bramble. Up on the ladder, I could see that Mr B’s old plot is now completely overgrown, so I didn’t feel bad about cutting beyond my boundary.

There’s a little bit left in the corner that I won’t be able to reach until autumn/winter. That’s going to be some very thick stalks that need cutting back. I got the multiple huge limbs out of the apple tree though, so they won’t be able to root down. The next job is to prop up the fencepost as simply as possible; it can definitely go more vertical than it is. 

I took home a flowerpot of blackberries and the first beetroot. There are maybe 3 more to come.

There was lots of colour in the plot when I arrived this morning. So, in spite of all the little problems around the place, it did look pretty good with nasturtiums flowering, and the sweet peas blooming.

In Bed 11, there are some deep pink and pale pink poppies from which I need to collect seed. The King Edward haulms have died down. I doubt there will be much of a harvest, but I’ll dig them up in a couple of weeks. The Caras are still going quite well.

It turns out that the volunteer sweetcorn in Bed 4 is actually millet, which I’ll leave and see if I can harvest it.

The Roma tomatoes are coming along. The small cherry tomatoes in Bed 1 were completely drowned by corn marigolds, so I’ve trimmed and removed plants to try and give them some space. Another ring of my supports has broken; they may need a rethink given their age. The cherry tomatoes are also really low plants, so they don’t suit the rings really.

There were 5 tiny cherry tomatoes to pick. I should feed the plants again. Or at least make it rain.

After a lot of weeding and deadheading, I was about done – and then noticed that I’d still not tied up the runner beans and sweet peas. That’s now finally done. I won’t bother doing sweet peas on wigwams again, it’s too difficult. I just need to get the post back up so I can do my nettings again.

With a new spool installed, I finished the strimming today. I did lots of tidying up overall. I threw away most of the zinnias and abandoned seedlings from home, put the plants on the compost and the compost on various beds. Green manure or ordinary manure would be a good idea for the beds this winter. They’re a bit low and very dry now.

I cleared up the compost heap and dragged out what spilled compost I could. I got a bucket and a half for future use, but the heap is very dry. I’ve not been adding veg scraps from home this year, so I think that’s made a big difference along with the dry summer. I tidied up the whole slabbed area and it looks much better now. I’ve also got a bucket of coffee grounds from the office.

I collected seeds from the sweet william, corn poppies and foxgloves for the new house. I need to get more of the pink poppies saved, along with antirrhinum and larkspur from home.

Bees were on my teasels. There are a bunch of teasel rosettes in Bed 6 and I can’t quite decide if I want them in the garden at the house; I’m leaning more towards yes at the minute though.

The pickerel weed is flowering in the pond. I took a photo of the corn marigolds to see try and judge them for future sowing. I think in limited numbers they’re fine, but not a whole bed.

I feel like I really got on top things today. I stayed four hours, figuring that it was easier to stay hot than go home and try and come back out into it. I finally did all the deadheading and got rid of the really big weeds that have been bugging me for weeks. I’ve not done the sweet william yet as I want to save some seed.

I did lots of ripping up of grass edges as I went. There are lots of creeping buttercups taking over. I pulled a load out of a hole by the apple tree. The whole place really needs mechanically scarifying as the mower just glides over everything.

I managed to feed the tomatoes and beans for the first time this season.

Some big thistles had been sitting on the King Edward potatoes, so they were a bit squashed and yellow. I’ve tried to stand the haulms up again.

I had two or three blue tits on the nuts in the pear tree. It’s an interesting note that they like the feeder and the tree although both are small and low.

I was finally able to do some proper weeding today, making the place look so much better by getting rid of 3 buckets and thistles, weeds, and nettles. I resowed the beetroot (I’m out of carrot seed) and watered it – the compost was dry as a bone -, but it’s too late now to put the tunnel up thanks to a big beetroot and the random volunteer sweetcorn.

I mowed on 2, which made moving around easier. Hopefully I can get it down further soon.

In weeding the onions I “harvested” one and took it home. The rest are doing ok, and should do better now without big weeds in the way.

I’ve got more parsnips than I thought, but this sections needs weeding too. The poppies are turning and I need to start collecting poppy seed, partly for the house, and partly to stop them sticking to me while I’m weeding.

I managed to strim most of the edges in the evening, but then the cable ran out before my energy did.

I cut back my hawthorns a bit, keeping them branchy, rather than dense hedges. In Bed 1 the aquilegia looks recovered, and in Bed 9 the first sweet peas are open.

More compost has been kicked out, so that needs tidying up if it ever cools down. There are lots of brambles and nettles to be cut down, and thistles to  be dug up.

After two weeks away from the plot of course it was an absolute meadow when I got there today. However, I was able to do a mow on 3 with very few problems, which was a blessing. I also had a visit from some long-tailed tits, which was lovely.

I wound the trailing beans around their poles. Some of them had gone through the nasturtiums which have absolutely gone mad. I still can’t bring myself to simply pull up pretty plants that are getting in the way of vegetables in the veg beds.

Volunteer corn marigolds have really gone mad in Bed 1. They were odd to deadhead last year, so this year I must really decide if they’re worth growing. The seedlings are identifiable, so next year I could stop them quite well.

Some of the everlasting peas are standing up, some aren’t. I fought the white one up with two canes fairly well, though the ground was like concrete. I really need to pursue my trellis panel idea for the side and front to save them squashing what’s in front of them – including the bears’ breeches, which have returned. It would reduce this kind of remedial work next year.

Veronica is now out and the physostegia seems to have filled in its gap, but it’s not flowering yet. The sunflower has gained strength and the parsnips that have yet to be dug up are providing a little shade with their height.

The first tomatoes are coming, all a bit hidden in Bed 1. I did the first harvest today, if you can call it that. I pulled up the garlic from Bed 6, but most of it was rotten, so went to the compost.

Though we’ve had lovely storms the pond was quite low so it gave it a bucket of collected water to help out.