The next round of seeds was sown today, with the grow house going up to hold them. We have a warm sunny week coming up, so I’m hoping they’ll be warm enough and protected in there to germinate and we’ll trap the warm air overnight.

Mind you, the seat peas that had germinated and were doing nicely outside in their covered tray then fried this afternoon, so I’ll have to resow bunch of those.

I’ve sown:

• 30 x French marigold
• 8 x Trailing mixed nasturtium 
• 20 x Jewel mixed nasturtium
• 12 x Swift sweetcorn
• 6 x ornamental gourds
• 6 x Soleo sunflower (1m)
• 6 x Hallo sunflower (1.5m)

I took a few more apple tree branches off this morning. I’ve propped them up by the bird feeder as perches. I’ve buried some more wooden discs below the feeder for me to step on. One has been firm for a while, so I’m hoping the others might be allowed to settle.

I found another wood anemone in the woodland bed and the grape hyacinth are starting to open. The lungwort are looking properly pink now too.

Into the triangle, the fuchsia has some green growth at the bottom. I weeded the remainder of the bed and uncovered a couple of bear’s breeches. I’m hopeful they might recover this year and help fill in the spaces.

The water in the pond wasn’t too cold, so I removed half a bucket of elodea and removed a number of stones from the bottom, disturbing some hornwort, which I threw back. Happily, I saw a number of diving beetles, the first of the season.

I found a small hole in the front wall of the liner, so in the afternoon I patched the hole. I can’t really move the sand without getting under the liner, so I’ve tried to tighten up the liner and glue it more closed. Really it needs  something solid to lean against it under the water, but I’m not sure a paddlestone is stable enough. I’ve put a staple into the top of the liner to help too.

The creeping jenny one the front ledge is waking up and looks hopeful. There’s a big patch of bare liner as the side goes down to the beach, which can only possibly be covered by vegetation. I mixed up some mud and started a layer there and going outside to see how it looked I discovered some new celandines beneath my feet. So I dug up a couple and planted them in the new mud.

I think I’ve found a wood anemone coming up in the woodland bed. No sign of any others yet though. Above the bed, I had a blue tit inspecting the nest box quite thoroughly. A wren came to shout on the fence too.

I’ve sown seed in Bed 1 and scattered my own compost over the top. So that’ll probably produce a load of gourds. The plan is to let those seeds germinate to show where they are, then sow some more. I feel like I might need some more flower seed, but I’ll see.

Using the physostegia stalks and some vertical sticks, I’ve built a small dead hedge against the boundary to keep the grass back. I’ve broken down all the stalks of the helianthus, but I’ve broken them down for compost and rubbish. There isn’t really room to built a dead hedge against the fence there, so I’ll probably just keep the grass back from the outside. The ground is currently covered with lemon balm, but there’s not much to do about that.

First home sowing today, evidently a year to the day from last year. I’ve sown:

• 8 x Red Alert tomatoes (7-10 days)
• 8 x Roma tomatoes (7-10 days)
• 8 x cerinthe (7-21 days)
• 24 x sweet peas (10-14 days)
• 8 x Oklahoma zinnia (4-7 days)
• 8 x Sweet Kisses cosmos (7-21 days)
• 8 x malope (7-14 days)
• Icelandic poppy – sprinkled over 12 cells (10-15 days)
• Anise hyssop – sprinkled over 12 cells (14-21 days)

I planted the onions in Bed 4 after sprinkling bonemeal into the compost. Only one set was soft, so I’ve got 2 rows of 24 and 1 on the end by the path. I’ve buried them completely to give them a chance to root before the birds find them.

The pond’s not looking bad, but really needs some renovation to try and bring the sand wall back up and to increase the depth. The birds are using it to bathe, which is great, but a lot of stones have fallen in, meaning it’s pretty shallow.

I did handfuls of weeding all around the plot and transplanted the verbena from Bed 4 to the left border. I’ll probably do the same with the one in Bed 10. I’ve edged the shed, pond and gate slabs, which has been a long time coming and looks great.

I laid out Bed 1 with some feature logs and a wood pile in the centre. I’m not 100% on the pile, but it’s probably about right. I’ve left room under the pile for creatures to hide. Come on amphibians! I’ve sown the greater knapweed seeds in the far right corner, framed by a log.

Finally, I sowed 2 rows of parsnips in Bed 7, leaving half the bed covered. I’ve attempted to protect the rows from the birds by balancing two black squares on bricks over the top. That’ll still let through some rain and a little light, so I’m hopeful.

The elder in the corner has been cut right down to the level of the nest box for being “at risk”. I’m hopping mad about it as all the new growth has been cut off too, but there’s nothing to be done now. Hopefully the elder will now do some high-speed spite growing.

We’ve still not had much rain, so I put several watering cans into the pond to bring the level up.

I dug the perovskias out of the left border and moved them into the newly cleared area over on the right. I’m really not sure if I’ve moved dormant plants, or completely dead plants. Certainly a piece fell off one of them …

I weeded the left boundary where the perovskias had been and dug in a couple of buckets of semi-rotted leaf mould from the black bin. I think rather than finding some more perennials that can deal with the wetness, I’ll broadcast annual seed here, like cornflowers and greater knapweed.

We’ve not had rain in a while, which is good for drying out the paths, but the pond was a little low, so I gave it a few watering cans. No signs of frogs or frogspawn, though Pat keeps checking through the fence.

I’ve now got tête á têtes open in Bed 3 with the crocuses now. Not long before this bed really takes off. I’ve got little strands appearing in the woodland bed and I’m wondering if they’re going to be the woodland anemones.

Today was fern bed day and I spread my collection of pine needles and leaves across the bed with the remnant of a bag of compost, and arranged beautiful logs. I thought I might get another fern for the very end of the bed, but decided that a big log pile was cheaper and more fun.

I moved a lot of foxgloves from Bed 3 and planted them at the back of the bed, along with a couple of larger ones from under the apple tree.

I’ve alternated the ferns: Dryopteris erythrosora (copper shield fern; colourful when young; 0.5-1m spread/height) / Polystichum setiferum (soft shield fern; 0.5-1m spread, 1-1.5m height) / Dryopteris erythrosora / Polystichum setiferum. There are spaces for the bluebells when they get moved and I’m still considering other colour as the heucherellas I’d like are not readily available.

In the afternoon I cleared out a load lemon balm and buttercups stuck within it, making a new space to consider. I’m wondering about moving the struggling perovskias from the left and putting something else in the hole they leave. The triangle needs a good weed and sort out, now it has the fern bed and woodland bed either side. The bear’s breeches are coming up, but they were covered in moss, so I’ve cleared that off.

The pond is waking up, but the water is still too cold to try and mend the front. I saw water louse and a snail. A paddlestone has dropped in and needs to be found, but meanwhile I’ve sprinkled more million bells seed on the ledges.

The first crocuses have opened in Bed 3, with lots more to come.

The garlic was all up, so I worked out where the evicted 4 could go back in. The lines aren’t as uniform as they should be, but with any luck everything will stay put now.

The ferns have been bought now and are sitting at home. I need to get some heucherellas, but the Alabama Sunrise weren’t at Wyevale any more, so I’m going to hold on a moment to see if I can find them. I’ve marked roughly where the ferns will go and put another log, and some pieces of bark into the bed. Two foxgloves have been added and I’ll get more out of Bed 3 next weekend.

I saw the robin standing on the tripod log twice, exactly as intended. Hopefully it’ll find all the grubs I was turning up in the weeding.