I bought two new pond plants today to take over from two from the old pond. The sweet flag that’s probably got rust is going to be replaced by pickerel weed. Since the elodea took over and made a big web of roots, I plan to remove it. It’ll be replaced by a pot of water violet. I hope to put the pot down in the deep hole on top of the paddle stone. Just need to check the measurements.

I’ve put those plants in the storage tanks at the plot. In the evening I weeded all of Bed 7 and thinned the parsnips. There are also a few little radishes coming along, so maybe I’ll dot some more of that seed around the place for amusement. A big volunteer sunflower has been moved to Bed 9, where I believe a couple of new nasturtiums have arrived.

I spent the morning finessing the shape of the pond and checking the levels of sides. I built the back shelf up a bit with mud and everything else is good enough. I continued being bugged by miner bees, with one pursuing its own hole (which I then sealed with clay).

The bottom of the pond was about 18″, and I managed to scrap another couple of inches of yellow clay out to account for the paddlestone that will go at the bottom.

Afer lunch Mum and I used laminate flooring underlay as the pond underlay. It took longer than the sand, as it was less malleable, but we pinned and cut it to fit fairly tightly. So I’m hopeful that the liner will sit fairly smoothly over it. I’ve put the underlay over the tile I couldn’t shift and the rock that goes there should hide any rise in the liner.

I started shaping the pond and discovered that it’s not so much that the sand had slipped, some of the earth has slipped over the sand. So when I scraped at it, as soon as I’d got rid of the sand, I knew I was back to the original carved shape.

I straightened the sides of the pond and carved out much better small shelves front and back. I’m hopeful that some stones will catch here and not immediately roll down to the bottom. The underlay and liner might undo some of the shape, but we’ll see.

There’s a much more defined bowl for the beach / bird bowl now. I’ve tried to keep a lip to stop stones being knocked to the bottom; it might be that more farm rock goes here too.

The last piece of bank by the gate was too difficult to shift. The plants behind the fence posts have stayed, because the liner goes in front. The tile to the left was too firmly wedged under two poles that were behind the fenceposts, so I’ve cut the liner and the new underlay and liner will have to go over it and be covered by the rock.

Having spent so long working in the corner, I made sure to enjoy this little piece of my left border. Everything else in the plot is so desperate for water and there’s now a bunch of weeding to be done too.

    

Time to redo the pond. The blackbird had pulled all the earth out of the creeping Jenny, so I might need some pond soil after all. He stood on the fence yelling at me like he owned the place for a while.

I set up two red boxes with some aged tap water and started adding water and weed from the pond. I’ve got everything split up into areas, which will be great as long as I remember what’s where.

Down at the bottom of the pond was about 2.5″ – 3″ of mud and stone, being held together with the roots of elodea. I think I’m going to try just depending on hornwort and possibly another floating pond to give shelter, which won’t take over the bottom. There was a lot of life in the mud, including – I think – a water boatman. So I need some mud and stone, but not that much and not something trying it all together.

I brought in reinforcements after lunch and Mum shifted most of the shelves, the clay having dried like concrete. Couch grass had crept all under the plastic and it’s amazing it only pierced it once. There wasn’t much sign of sand, but the earth had sagged in places.

In other news, something has pecked a hole in the side of my second bug hotel. I don’t know why my bee hotels are so attractive to vandals.

The pond water was a little low and the edge of the latest patch has suddenly started to lift. As far as I can feel, it’s still watertight underneath, but clearly I need to remake the pond to stop it being an issue.

Last year’s bee house is filling up fast, having been completely spurned last year. The teasel is now in its second year too and has grown vigorously. I need to get another first year plant so I can keep a constant flowering/seeding cycle going.

I’ve added new Bidens left and right. I can’t find any other spaces at the moment, so the third has gone home and will probably go in a pot.

I did some weeding in Bed 1, though not particularly thoroughly. When you have a close look you see more seedlings appearing – godetia and poppies perhaps – which also get disturbed when pulling up the weeds. I’ve added a few floppy cerinthe to the bed, with Mr B mocking the time it was taking to decide on their location.

I moved some nasturtium, candytuft and sunflower volunteers from Beds 5 and 6 to Bed 9. A couple of sown nasturtiums have appeared and more sweet peas are coming.

All but three of the garlic are doing poorly, so I’ve weeded around them, scattered fertiliser and watered them.

I watered the transplants and select seeds – the parsnips are doing great – but we really need more rain.

The callicarpa isn’t doing all that well, but I’ve noticed new growth coming. I’ll do more about trimming off dead bits when the new growth has done more.

I spent a few hours with my plants this afternoon, potting on silly indoor plants. The zinnias and cosmos are now in their own pots. I’ve potted on the stupid thin sweet peas, two per pot. I need to try and prop them up somehow so they don’t get caught on anything. All the new moves have been fed with seaweed.

Having realised that I was using 2023 seed, I bought new sweetcorn seeds and sowed replacements to go with the five plants that have come up. That tray is inside to let them germinate.

All four cucumbers are now up. I’m guessing they’ll break when transplanted, so I’m hoping that the direct sown seeds will come up soon. Everything is super dry at the allotment and we need some more rain soon.

The tomatoes have been outside for a couple of days, with the cover up and down. With the warm weather we’re having, little is left inside and the grow house gets zipped up late afternoon and opened in the morning.