I’m a bit behind my usual timeline, but the first seeds have now been sown: 16 x Tall sweet peas. They’re in my new root trainer, which is much more solid than the last one. I’ll try and get them to germinate in the warmth and then stick them outside, hoping for some slightly higher temps.

I’ve added compost ready for the runner beans, which I’ll put in at the weekend (Easter). I still don’t have a full plan for this year…

The first job was a small mend to the pond as something had been pecking/destroying a bit of the old ivy at the back of bird bowl. I cleared that up and filled the gap with pebbles. That then led into doing a good clear-up of the algae and duck weed. An upcoming job is clearing up the slabs so that I end up on them, not the grass, when I sit down.

I’ve finally finished the strimming. Some edges were already up high again and I went over a few again. Come Easter weekend I hope to get the mowing done for the first time. Trying to cut down some high edges is also on the list.

It looks like I might have a bluebell this year. I think the ones in the pots might be blind, but this one is in the ground. My bulbs are a bit hit-and-miss. I don’t know whether it is down to their quality, or how much their conditions affect them. The callicarpa moved from the front bed to a pot at home seems to be thriving now.

I saw a bird in the tree which had a red chest, but wasn’t a robin, and had a brown speckled back, but didn’t look like a sparrow. The app confirmed it was a common linnet, which flew off, but could still be heard.

I drove down to the plot for the first time this year, parking up by Pat’s plot. I was then able to take home buckets of weeds and various bits of rubbish.

The main aim was to plant the onion sets, but I did all kinds of other jobs too, including cutting back the nettles that I could reach from around the pond, and doing a little weeding. The earth isn’t dry enough yet to do a proper weed as you can’t shake the mud off the roots yet. I harvested a few parsnips to see how they’re keeping in the earth. Two of them were big and needed a big fight to get them out. Two were small and one was madly forked.

I prepped the onion beds – 2 and 8 – with superphosphate and spread the last of the bag around the garlic.

As usual, a few of the sets were mouldy, so they went on the compost. There’s a small gap left at the end of Bed 2, which could probably have a zinnia or some chard.

I aimed to do the remaining half of the strimming, but I was into much longer grass, so it was much more work. Two paths remain to be done. A lot had to be cut with the shears first, scraped up and then came the strimming and raking. Some of the grass roots are really matted and I need to do some Stanley knife cutting of the high edges where I can. Some big boot stomping will help bring them down too. The ground feels quite uneven at the moment.

The miniature tulips are coming up, and the daffodils in Bed 3 are just starting to bloom.

I’ve been accompanied by a small friend under the plastic the past few times. It runs about under the plastic and I hadn’t seen it until today. It’s the field vole, who ran off among the long grass when I first got there. Then it was back under the plastic, running about. I lifted the side of Bed 9 and it doesn’t smell great under there.

New shoots are coming up on the pickerel weed in the pond. The flag iris is also coming back to life.

It rained last night, but was lovely and sunny today. I made a start on strimming the ridiculously long grass in the plot. I managed half of it before giving in, raking up what grass I could. The two buckets of grass are a good addition to the compost heap, on top of all the cutting down.

The pond was full of algae, which was easy to pull out. There were several big damselfly larvae in the algae, which had an immediate instinct to hide and get back to the water. The shrimps aren’t that clever and need more help.

The veronica on the far side of the pond is thriving and a bee fly came to visit all the flowers.

The coreopsis has fallen apart in the middle. I should really see if I can split and rearrange it better.    

My forsythia was pecked to pieces by sparrows, so the middle piece is missing almost all its buds. I moved it nearer the house for protection as soon as I saw. It now has its first flower, and new leaves coming.