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.

We’ve had some very very cold, frosty nights in the past week, so all the annuals were done when I got to the plot this morning. One nigella had a flower and there was some candytuft in the left border still going though. The coreopsis is about done and I need to cut it back now or in the spring. The peacock orchids have been finished off by the frost; they’ve been flowering since September.

I chopped up all the cosmos in Beds 1 and 4. Bed 4 could do with a top-up as an amount of compost stayed in the cosmos root balls. I’ve taken up all the marigolds in Beds 2 and 8 (and the one in 7) and chopped them up. The few zinnias were done too, but the anise hyssop looks ok for now.

All the nasturtiums had melted and it was crazy to pull up the curtains of foliage for the trailing ones. The other nasturtiums were much smaller plants. They were all pretty wet and didn’t need any chopping, so armfuls of them went straight to the compost. I’ve revealed a lot of weeds now, which will be the next job.

Since we’d had some frosts I decided to pull up a test parsnip. The top looked about 2.5″ across, but starting to dig showed it was going to be much heftier than that. I had to dig and dig and eventually I was able to pull it out. It left a tiny bit of its thin root in the ground and was 36cm long. Halfway through the digging some long-tailed tits visited the efeder and tree, closely followed by blue tits and a great tit on the feeder. I’d also seen a kestrel hovering over the allotments, so it was a good bird day.

It was a bit colder today and next week temperatures are due to drop to give us our first frosts. Therefore no deadheading at all. I found the last coconut of last season in the shed and put that up on the fence.

Something had had a little poke at the corner of the bug hotel, displacing a few bits of wood. I pushed them back in to place and noticed that the big terracotta pot had an amount of grass growing on it. In pulling that out I found that the bluebell bulbs have actually started to sprout. So maybe  they’ll do something next spring?

I weeded the fern bed, which wasn’t too difficult. The next job there will be to add a bit more bark. I found some new fungus – yellow stag horn, growing on wood at the back of the bed. Turkey tail fungus has been on the front leg for a long time. I checked under a log and found a couple of slugs, so my logs are indeed encouraging food for wildlife.

I carried on along to the triangle and weeded half of that. Next year I need to prop the everlasting pea  up better and make some space for other things further forward in the bed to do better. There are little animal holes all over the place. I imagine that they’re about 50/50 mole and vole.

It was 18ºC today, perfect for a sunny birthday visit to the allotment. I finished the ledge first. The fleabanes turned out to be pretty massive and I’ve cut them back a little. I was going to leave them until the spring, but the overhang was damaging my border pole and encouraging mole activity. I removed a lot more thrift too for the same reasons.

I used the shears to edge the concrete slabs, which were very overgrown. They look very neat now. I’d prefer to get another mow in, but I don’t know if it will be dry enough again any time soon. A strim would really help though, even if I don’t take it all the way down; just a little more under control.

In the afternoon I finished all the deadheading, which all got added to the compost heap, which is pretty high now. Half an hour before sunset colour was still shining from the marigolds and cosmos in the plot. So they’ve been noted for late season colour.

The pond is clear, but pretty dormant. All the hornwort has sunk, but the forget me not has spread a little. The front ledge is also much closer to being covered too. Just a little more plant coverage is needed.

The borders need a bit of work now, but most of beds are just waiting for the first frost. Then I can clear them properly, do the remaining weeding and cover them. It should be a good bit colder next week, so maybe we’ll get a frost soon.

I made a start on the ledge this morning. I’ve taken down most of the everlasting pea, which has filled the compost heap. The thrift has really grown too big now and is covering the edge of the border pole. The mole has taken this opportunity to make annoying holes too. I’ve attacked one plant so far, splitting it in half and cutting back the overhang.

In the afternoon I raked up the first fall of leaves from the crab apple at home and mowed them up. I’ve put them into 2 black sacks that are liftable and they’ll go  down to the plot at some point.

 It’s still warm enough that I only need to wear my hoodie at the plot. I took down the rest of the sunflowers and chopped them up for the compost. The nasturtiums are still going gangbusters. I had to take the branch saw to the big one from Bed 6. There was only one head that still had seeds and I emptied those into the fence coconut.

I took the last verbenas out of Bed 1. Others have gone from the left border too. Anything that’s a nuisance or in the wrong place is coming out. Otherwise they’re staying for the birds to eat the seed. Then they’ll get pruned in the spring.

I did one bed of marigold deadheading and some more work on the cosmos. Those flowers don’t last all that long individually, but as plants the overall effect is longlasting.

I moved some self-sown cerinthe plants from Bed 1 to the left border, along with a self-sown foxglove. The erigeron here and on the ledge is big, but needn’t be cut back until spring. Following a bit of left border work I ended up pulling/digging up as much fenceline grass as I could all along. I’ve tidied up the fallen physostegia stems as they were making a mess. The other one has remained standing.

The rudbeckia Aries is still flowering, like the calendulas. It’s not hardy, but after the first frost I’ll see if it’s still ok.  I might be able to get it through the winter if it’s mild.

A morning off work to make up for a slightly wet weekend. My focus was clearing the rest of the weeds from Bed 1. I’ve taken most of the verbena out of the bed, but some of it is a bit entwined with the more valuable rudbeckia.

The mole is still piling soil up against my gate. I need some kind of edging to try and stop it. It’s not as if a hole lets it through the gate; the pile butts up against the wood of the gate. A similar bit of animal interference was evident on the log pile near the pond. Something big (a fox maybe?) had clearly had a bit of a dig in the pile and collapsed it a bit. I added some more, larger logs to the pile from Bed 1.

One log has also gone to the fern bed. I might saw its pokey bit off, but the birds might like to stand on it. This bed might get another log yet. I’ve also got a big bucket of bark that needs to be spread around. I think more logs will help keep the place tidy and reduce the amount of bark lost to the birds.

I did some deadheading of the cosmos, which are still flowering wildly. Rudbeckia and calendula are still going. Even the nasturtiums are still going. Bed 5 is suddenly full of them again, with a few flowers.

The helianthus did pretty poorly this year. The stems didn’t grow very high and there weren’t many flowers.