I added more water into the pond, including a watering can from a water butt. It’s still super low though, with no rain in sight.

I did lots of tidying up today, pulling up dead poppies and nasturtiums. The compost heap is now absolutely heaving with dry material.  In Bed 1, two of my nursery plants – the burnet and fuchsia – look pretty dead, but I gave them some water just in case they can be saved. The physostegia looks pretty poorly, so even my established perennials are suffering with so little water.

My millet is doing well and there are a few ears of wheat coming from the straw around the potatoes in Bed 7.

I’ve collected some candytuft, poppy and cornflower seeds for the new garden (completing in 2 weeks!) A bunch of teasel plants have been revealed in Bed 6  and there’s one in Bed 7 too. Next decision is whether to leave them or not. I’ve cleared the parsnips from Bed 7. I crumbled the really brittle leaves onto the soil to add the vaguest organic material.

I picked lots of tomatoes and the first pears. I’m leaving the remaining onions for at least another week.  The runner beans are done now and so is the second wigwam of sweet peas. They’ll be next in line for tidying up.

In the back bed I ripped up the nasturtiums for the compost. There’s one sweetcorn that might be a future harvest, plus next season’s parsnips. As well as a lot of verbena seedlings that need to come up.