A pretty nice day, with some sun and the first sighting of the spitfire. With the sun coming back, algae is starting to grow in the pond, but it’s not a problem yet. I need to keep an eye on it though.

I did all the cutting down, except for the veronica and helianthus as they haven’t started regrowing yet. More bulbs are showing, including lots of the crocuses in the shed pot; some of flowers a bit nibbled, which is probably a mix of birds and slugs. I cut back a few handfuls of grass at bed edges and found some small slugs hiding in there.

Having been cut back, the coreopsis has a bit of a hole in the middle, which gets covered when it’s in bloom. It’s a bit of a sign for dividing it though. The cerinthe that overwintered has collapsed into leggy branches. I’ve cut off the dead bits, but I’m not sure if it’s going to grow from the bottom, require a trim, or just get pulled up. That said, it’s started flowering, which is crazy.

The garlic is growing again; I need to find out when to expect to harvest it this time around. There’ll then be an empty bed to consider.

I saw the robin and blue tit, and heard the wren. It was still quite wet underfoot in spite of the sun. I didn’t do any weeding, but with all the cutting down done for now, I think that’s it for the allotment for the time being. I need to get my head around what this year’s plan is so I know what seed trays and seeds I want.

Time to prune the pear tree. It was much bigger than I had realised, with lots of new growth. I’ve really thinned it out and stopped branches heading straight for the fence. I ended up taking off a whole branch at the back due to a bad cut with the loppers (not all my cuts have been perfect for various reasons). It goes back to the strange cluster of sprouts in the middle of the tree. I wonder if I should saw it off, but that might leave a big wound.

I took some long branches off the elder to stop it (a) being a nuisance, and (b) just being a pile of long whippy branches. I’ll get Mum to thin out a few more higher up. I’ve kept the really long branches for now. I wonder if at least parts of them might be useful for construction at some point.

In the afternoon I cut up all the prunings, including the small pile from last year, and the previous year’s few branches I’d kept and not used. About a bucket and a half of pieces went onto the compost heap. Pieces I couldn’t cut, but which were of no use, will go to the council compost. I’ve kept back some pieces for possible nature use, plus some larger, trimmed branches to put around a bird feeder, like I have already.

While I was doing all the cutting I saw something suddenly move under the plastic of Bed 9. It must have disappeared down a hole, as disturbing the sheet didn’t cause any further movement.

When I put the twigs on the compost I noticed that my leaf bags had been torn open, so all those decomposing leaves have gone into the wooden bin. I’ve tidied up where the bait station sits and put it onto some wood, as all the digging had pushed mess into the station.

I had lots of birds on the app today: robin (which seems quite friendly this year), great tit, greenfinch, sparrow, wren, dunnock, red wing and my first fieldfare.

I’ve got a couple of little gloopy balls in the pond, but I think it’s more likely to be algae than eggs.

I had the perfect day for doing the apple tree at last. Cloud cover, not too wet underfoot – though it was pretty squidgy by the tree. There are some dips and holes that are going to need to be remedied in better conditions.

I used my loppers for the first time. They take a little wrangling as you have to get the cut in the back of the blades, but they did the job beautifully. I took off some pretty big branches, but didn’t need to use the branch saw, which was a great bonus. Only one large branch fell into the abandoned part of the back plot.

Tomorrow the sun will be out, and I’ll do the pear tree and take some branches off the elder to stop it being a nuisance. I need to look at the hawthorns too.

It has been so unbelievably rainy and wet this year. I think there are a few places in the country that haven’t seen a dry day. Today was sunny and cold and the water had drained enough for me to get down to the allotment. The path and grass were wet and muddy, but my plot wasn’t underwater at all.

I’ve booked Friday off to see if I can finally do my apple tree on a cloudy day.

A few bulbs are coming up in the borders: some crocuses in multiple beds and a single white crocus in the pot by the shed. There were a few yellow crocuses; let’s see if the sparrows eat them.

The pulmonaria are flowering very nicely and there are a couple of tiny snowbells at the end of the bed.

Over in the wetter left border, a few scilla are coming up. They’re quite robust and look a bit like hyacinth at this point.

The garlic looks pretty good – has it grown more?

The remaining parsnips have started regrowing their tops. I dug up what I could fit in my bag / comfortably carry, which included a couple of very big ones. The rest will be much smaller and it will probably be possible to bring them all home at once.