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.

A visit after tea on the solstice. Heat is keeping me away from the plot; I’ve just had to make my peace with the idea that I can’t be down there in the heat. The grass needs a mow – it’ll probably have to start off with a 3.

I tied up the beans and peas at last. Some of them were on the ground last time and one needed unwinding from having grown through a large nasturtium. If the pole hadn’t fallen down, the netting would have gone up and these things would be half way up it by now. It’s just a weird year.

I watered the veg, but there’s very little growing. I think the crow has been messing about in the bed. So I really should have just put up the tunnel, but I thought I’d find it a hassle to do on my own. Maybe it wouldn’t be. I do have a random sweetcorn in the veg bed though. I lost one of the remaining 4 I managed to plant at the back, so this is its resurrection.

I did a round of bare-hand weeding, so various nettles and thistles were left behind. I’ve made a good difference though. There’s a huge amount of corn marigold in Bed 1, self-sown from last year.

The pond’s not too low and I gave it the remainder of watering cans as I was watering. The dead thyme has revived a bit and is creeping through the rocks in a pretty way. The way thymes grow make them a good pond accompaniment.

The buckets had gathered 9 litres of water. Since nothing needed watering, I put it all in one bucket and put a pole in to give an escape route for whatever might fall in.

Bed 6 was full of poppies this morning. I’ll be collecting their seed for the new house. Down in the corner are also volunteer teasels, which I’ll probably be collecting. I’m surprised that this year’s new teasel has come up to be a spike, but I guess I’ve just lost track of the years.

The mole is around again – a couple of hills outside the gate, and one under the lungwort so far.

I did the deadheading and there was lots of post-rain weeding to be done. Bed 1 was green with weeds and corn marigolds, and a few cornflowers. I weeded out fistfuls of weeds and some corn marigolds to give the tomatoes some space. One tomato has taken off like I’d expect, while the others in the bed have stayed very squat.

I had no more energy to put the terrible zinnias in the new spaces, so I watered them and left them down there for next time.

My pond log pile proved its worth today; a lizard was sunbathing and then disappeared in among it.

I cut down all the big nettles and bits of bramble that had shot up too, so it’s all looking more under control again. The foxgloves in the fern bed and Bed 3 are doing well (and there’s a beautiful white one that’s hopped outside the gate). Some have self-seeded into Bed 2, so I need to see if I can rescue any of those.

In the morning, I weeded and deadheaded, which was quite satisfying.

The forget-me-not and creeping jenny are starting to open on the pond, and the hornwort has come back up to summer levels.

In the afternoon, I planted out the four sweetcorn plants that I have. So we’ll get 4 cobs if we’re lucky. I also planted out the runner beans. I’ve sown one more seed, and it turned out that one of the previously sown seeds had actually germinated.

The home-grown sweet peas have now been jammed around the wigwam and I stuffed the final four around the remaining bed pole.

The bramble from next door has kicked off, so I cut that back an amount, but I also need to get to work on the nettles that are coming in left and right.

Rain is due this coming week, so I put out buckets to collect the treasure.

Another hot day, but it will be cooler tomorrow, so some planned jobs were postponed. I managed to do a mow on 1 pretty easily. Only the path between beds 1 and 4 needed a lot of work to get down through the thatch.

The pond was a bit low, so I added some water. We should also get rain on Monday night.

I raked up some weeds from around the tomatoes. The other half of the bed is being left to all the volunteer poppies and corn marigolds it has coming up. The poorly aquilegia looked worse at first glance, but it has new growth coming up, which is great.

Next to no veg is coming up yet, I guess because it’s now so dry. It probably has time to catch up, but it’s a very weird year. A couple of sunflowers have died and I think a couple of the scant parsnips are gone too. But the sown and volunteer nasturtiums are now taking off. I sowed some cornflower in hole in the bed by the shed.

Sitting in the shed I can see the poppies and lupins and geums flowering and somehow I’m not really appreciating them and the fact that they’re blooming. I’m just walking past them knackered all the time.

Today was another hot day, so I just went down to the plot in the morning. I weeded all the poppies and weeds from around the parsnips and discovered that I’ve got enough for this year. The two wide dense rows from last year show that they were too much.

I planted snapdragons in Bed 1 and the right border. On arrival I discovered that one was missing from the pack having been stolen by a bird. It was found at home and shoved in a pot.

I sat by the pond for a little while and saw this year’s first big beetle and my first ever caddisfly, which has wrapped itself in hornwort leaves. There was also a tiny damselfly larvae, so damselflies must love my pond.

I had five silly sunflowers from home, so I’ve put those in the right bed, the nasturtium bed, and the space where I’d taken parsnips from. I think at this point, the remaining parsnips can just stay where they are and flower. I’ll have to get them out at some point though, because clearly frost doesn’t kill them.

   

We’ve got a few days of high temperatures, so I did some potting on at home in the shade in the morning. The four remaining sweetcorn have been moved into bigger pots. The zinnias have all been moved on to bigger pots too. The rudbeckia are tiny, and while the marigolds are comparatively big, they’re not worth moving.

Later, I made a post-dinner visit to the plot to do the strimming. It wasn’t too overgrown, thanks to Mum’s mower reaching further, so it didn’t take forever. The ground is so uneven now and I can’t get the gate all the way open because it catches on a lump in the ground. That needs solving and I’d love to get the ground levelled better on a wider scale. 

The potatoes are up now and looking good. Maybe I’ll do them again, depending on how easy they are to dig up. Covering them with straw is certainly much easier than earthing up. 

Something had been digging around in the plot – in the fern bed, at some of the straw, one of the tomatoes and, of course, knocking everything around under the bird feeder. I knocked the old bug hotel apart and threw the big bits under the tree onto the brush pile.

I removed the parsnips cover and found that there are a few up. Last year’s are almost flowering and at this point, I think I’ll just leave them and not worry about digging them out for food. 

A teasel has suddenly sprung up almost out of nowhere. I guess I knew there was a rosette there, but suddenly the plant is huge. 

I watered a few things, including the aquilegia, which isn’t looking very happy. It has some mildew, but possibly I’ll be able to feed it and give it some more strength.