An evening visit, still hot though! The pond is a bit busy with blanket weed at the moment, especially as it’s warm. Hopefully it’ll settle in a while. I’ve not seen my diving beetles for a little while, so I hope they’re safe.

The Merlin app caught a new bird: a swallow.

I did lots of deadheading and made a start on cutting down the borage. I’ll need to glove up properly to pull them up. I gathered the first seeds from Bed 1: cornflower and corn marigold. The candytuft has gone over now, so I’ll leave most of that to collect seed. The calendula is still going, but I’ll save that seed too.

I’d been missing the shield bugs, but there are plenty around now, so maybe I was just looking too early.

I pulled all the nigella out of the fern bed. I’d forgotten that I have heucheras in that bed too, so it’s good to give them some space. I’m aiming for foxgloves next year, not nigella and corn cockles. The foliage has disappeared from the bluebell pots, so I might just need to take them out of the pots and plant them and hope for the best.

One of my bags of leaves was falling apart, so I emptied it across the two bins. The top was very dry, but underneath was quite wet. The dry ones in the bin are really crunchy and I feel like I need to put a food mixer in there or something to crumble them up.

Today’s harvest had the first runner beans and carrots. I also picked some small flowers for home, plus one of the Soleil sunflowers.