Today was feeding day and although I went out at midday, the sun went behind the clouds from time to time to help out. I mixed up the 4 litres and then weakened it to about 6 litres before using. Everything important has been fed – just not the nasturtiums or much in the borders.

I gave a little bit to the left hand fern as it’s not looking as healthy as the others. I’m not worried about it yet, just keeping an eye on it.

A couple of the gourds look quite healthy after some rain. Maybe they and their sickly siblings will do better now. The sunflowers were fed too.

I’ve been watching a few stunted onions and I finally got around to feeling if they were firm or not. These weren’t, so went in the bin. One less healthy looking one was still firm, so I’ve left it.

Bed 1 is busy with bees thanks mostly to the borage. There are spots of other colours all over, with lots more poppies and corn marigolds to come. Next year I’m thinking the nature bed might be two or three of the thin beds to frame the veg.

The plot was freshly strimmed (Thursday), mown (Friday) and watered (last night) when I arrived, which was perfect.

I completely deadheaded the orange geum, taking off all the stalks, which took forever. There was lots of grass to pull out of the fence too and while I was head down in the bed I picked up all the bee sticks that had been thrown out by the woodpecker.

With the elodea gone, the hornwort has really taken off, so I took some out to make room. The pickerel weed has a flower bud now, which is exciting. Mum reached over and trimmed the veronica in the corner for me. There are a few new leaves on the thyme, so it may yet come back to life. I’m leaving it to see. I also saw a sparrow in the bird bowl for a moment before it took fright.

We propped up the front and right everlasting peas as best we could. Next year I’m determined to catch them before they take off with some willow fencing.

I’ve tied up the runner beans higher up now. Two of them are quite high. I also gave the direct sown cucumbers a loose string to guide them to the canes.

The zinnias from home have all been moved to the plot now. I never potted them on to the big black pots, which means that they rather used up all the nutrients and the few that are flowering just have little flowers. Three have gone into spaces in Bed 3 and five have gone into Bed 1. I did buckets of weeding in Bed 1, pulling up all the creeping weeds in the first couple of feet around the edge of the bed, revealing a panic sowing of poppies, like I found in Bed 6 recently. There are some weeds left in the middle, but I wouldn’t be able to reach to plant/deadhead anyway.

I cleared some space in Bed 3 among the bulbs for the zinnias. I also found what looks like a hellebore seedling. Good to know that the birds destroy the main plant, then crap it out 12″ away.

Bed 6 has enough cosmos for Bed 4 when the onions, so they can be moved when the time comes. The idiotic bendy ones at home are staying there. The nursery row of zinnias needs to be spread out a bit and I’ll find some other space in Bed 6, maybe Bed 9 too if a space if left among all the big nasturtiums, candytuft and sunflowers 🙂

The calendula has done well this year and makes me think I should do more next year to fill the spaces for bold colour. One of them has a mad flower head where the centre flower has done, but other buds are growing directly around it, not on the stalk.

The teasel has lots of greenfly, but it doesn’t seem to care. It’s difficult to try and rub them off, because it’s covered it hooked spines. More importantly, it has four flower heads now.

Bed 11 isn’t much, though the plants have grown since planting. A couple of the gourds have had flowers. Tomorrow everything is going to be fed, so let’s see if that helps.

It rained lots yesterday and so I had water to empty into the right hand butt. It’s now about half full and nothing needs watering for a little while. I put down some more grass seed on my bare patches as the week ahead is set to be warm and dry, so maybe the seed will germinate.

I did some weeding all around the boundaries, pulling out lots of grass and cutting back some brambles and nettles. I’ve deadheaded the heucheras and I can see some new leaves coming at the base. The first corn marigold and some poppies have opened in Bed 1, so it really feels like things are starting now.

The sweet peas have spread out quite well, so I’ve now tied them all in for the first time. I think I might have to wind at least one horizontal layer around the strings. Possibly the runner beans would benefit from this too, as they’re having a bit of trouble staying wound around the canes.

The direct sown cosmos and zinnias are wonderfully robust and I’ve now pinched out a number of them. I’m not sure where they’ll all end up, seeing as I’ve got good zinnias at home too, as well as silly bendy cosmos. There is definitely going to be a load of direct or outdoor sowing happening next year.

The bark at the bottom of the apple tree is peeling a bit and so I took some photos for Reddit and went through the tree looking for any other damage. At the far side I found some eaten leaves with remnants of web. Turns out those are from caterpillars and I should probably get back there and remove more of the affected leaves and have a look around for any other signs of them.

We’ve got lots of rain coming tomorrow, so no plot visit tomorrow. Instead, I checked on things today after a reasonable amount of rain this week. The rain buckets had gathered lots and the butt on the corner no longer moves if you bump into it.

Everything was fine in spite of the breezy weather recently. There are the first flowers on the runner beans. Flowers are coming around the plot and what I thought were Icelandic poppies now have round buds and I think they’re going to be corn marigolds.

More of the third row of parsnips has germinated, so no resowing necessary; they just needed the right conditions.

I took a photo of the back left corner of Bed 3 to remind myself that at this point it’s a bit empty – some weeding needed, and the bulbs are done. The opposite corner is fine though, which some great colour.

Some bark has started peeling at the bottom of the apple tree. Pulling it back shows a slightly damp, orangey area and of course there was a woodlouse hiding in there.

I’d read that I needed to get the pickerel weed lower into the water so as to cover the bottom leaves – and as if to labour the point I found that new roots had appeared from the base of the plant. I took it off its bricks and added some stones for weight.

I’ve noticed a couple of mosquito larvae in the pond, which I didn’t have last year. Maybe they’ll attract a new kind of predator.

The last tomatoes are finally in: Bed 2 now has 3 Romas and 4 Red Alerts. The rings are alternated with fence panels curled round to accommodate two plants, plus anything their neighbours wants to lean on. The leftover tomatoes of varying strength will be put into pots at home.

We’ve added some water to the water butts and I’m taking at least 4 milk bottles every time I go down there. A little rain is due in the week, which I hope will at least lightly water everything. Next weekend I should give everything a week general feed.

I did a mow on 1 and will need to do the edges shortly, but they’re not too bad. I did a round of weed removal from the lawn, going around with my weed tool and a bucket. There are a lot of creeping weeds like buttercups that I’d like to reduce. It’ll be quite a job to defeat them though.

It was a hot day and time for the tomatoes to move to the plot at last. I’ve filled Bed 8 with Romas and the put the rings around them. Some Red Alerts will go in Bed 2 with more Romas; the crappier Red Alerts will be put in pots at home.

I’ve put tiny marigolds by the tomatoes and gourds. They never got potted on, so are very small. We’ll see if they now take off.

The three extra cucumbers now have strings to climb on the wigwam. The direct sown cucumbers are clearly so much stronger than the home grown ones (though at least they didn’t snap this time). Next year will definitely see more direct and outdoor sowing.

The sunburned runner beans are now pretty much recovered and are all growing nice new growth. I’ve planted out the final bean that germinated bean from home, which looks healthier than all the rest. And of course the bean I’d sown at the cane has germinated, so it might yet come up.

I’ve got aphids around the place, even on the teasel. Hopefully some ladybirds will turn up soon. I spread some more bark under the apple tree and noticed that the bark is peeling at the bottom of the trunk.

I pulled up the radishes, which were sown about a month ago. They were bigger than they were meant to be, but apparently tasted good. I’ve sown two more rows just for fun.

A short post-work visit to check things before tomorrow’s work. I’d left a tray of nasturtiums out all week, but they had magically survived. So I’ve planted them in Beds 6 and 9, with a couple in Bed 1 and one in the left border by the Bidens.

The fern bed is still looking great. A few volunteers and weeds have come up, but one frondy one looks very fitting, so that can certainly stay.

The pond is still all good and the bird bowl is clearly being used in my absence – as evidenced by the damn bank at that end of the pond. I’ve also discovered tiny seedlings of what I really hope is the chaenorhinum among the stones.

The foxgloves are doing very well and I’ve clearly got them to come in different colours for years yet as long as I tap the seed heads when the flowers are done.

I’ve added a few pebbles to the pond, but they mostly rolled off the front shelf into the depths, so I didn’t bother with many. I’ll get some farm rock at some point and that can be added. The beetles and tiny creatures are loving the bird bowl, though probably less when the birds turn up in my absence.

I’ve planted up Bed 11 now. Eight sweetcorn plants of various sizes are in. I’ve put two seeds in the empty hole and one seed near the smallest plant in case it doesn’t survive the move. At the right end of the bed I’ve put in five or so gourd plants. “Or so” because a couple of them had brand new plants coming up next to the main plant.

A couple of cerinthe and some malope have been put into Bed 1. I think that’s everything now, so it’s just up to the bed to do what it will.

There’s still most of a tray of Jewel nasturtiums leftover, which might be put into Beds 6 and 9 just because. I’ve put four of them into the white pot where the calendula had died. The soil’s awful in that pot, so let’s see how that helps. I had a few trailing nasturtiums in the sweetcorn tray, which I’ve put into a tray of six for Suzy.

The sun was shining beautifully this morning, meaning I could see right down to the bottom of the pond. Through the day I saw a couple of diving beetles, lots of shrimp and the funny water boatmen thing. The liner at the left corner looks a bit like it’s sagged a bit, but I can still see it under the pole by the grass.  I just need plants to take over and cover the liner so I can stop thinking about it.

After the rain the teasel is doing its magic water-holding thing. I don’t know if any visitors to the plot will take advantage of that.

I have now weeded everything and deadheaded the borders. There’s marestail coming up this year, particularly in the ledge along with bindweed, so I’ll keep working on that. The carrot and beetroot and coming up quite well. As always, everything just needs water. I didn’t gather much after the big rainfall, so who knows where it landed.

I’ve marked up Bed 11 for sweetcorn and gourds. I spent ages wondering if I’d turn that bed into flowers with a wigwam for the leggy sweet peas. The peas in Bed 9 are small, but have come up well, so I think I’m just going to abandon the leggy ones as I can’t find anywhere else to put them.

My first harvest of the year was the leftover oca that had started sprouting in Bed 11. Poppies and a few weeds had grown around the edges, but only marestail where the ground was covered, so covering the beds really is best.

The poor scorched runner beans are fortunately recovering. with new growth at the top and bottom.

The parsnips are doing well, I just need to keep watering the third row to get them to germinate. A few random radishes have come up, which I should probably harvest at their current size.

I’ve transplanted 3 home cucumbers to Bed 5 and magically they didn’t break. I’ll add canes later. The nasturtiums can stay for now. If they get in the way, they’ll be ousted.

Bed 1 now has a surprise sunflower in it. There was a gap after the weeding and then of course when I made a hole I found a small cerinthe seedling. If only we’d had rain, this bed would be so different. I think I’ll try it again next year in a smaller bed and hope for fewer weeds.

I’ve stuffed Beds 6 and 9 with nasturtiums and sunflowers. In Bed 6 I’ve got the nursery rows of zinnias and cosmos that will moved as needed. I’ve got pretty good zinnias at home along with some ridiculous cosmos.

Bed 9 has overwintered candytuft too, and stacks of nasturtiums and sunflowers. My homegrown sunflowers are spindly compared to the self sown ones, so next year there will definitely be some kind of direct sow plan going on.

I went down to do the mowing, which needed a 2 then 1 thanks to the bit of rain adding moisture to the clover. It all looks good for a weekend inspection (bar all the weeds) and we have lots of rain coming the night after next.

The stone adjustment to the bird bowl has worked; only a few pebbles had shifted, which is to be expected.

The one hole in the second bee hotel has now turned into a hole on the other side – plus a complete destruction of the butterfly slot. I guess I need to fill it in with some dowels. The other one needs some replacement dowels too.

The naturalised foxgloves in the apple tree are the first open and look great in a few colours. The others around the plot are a range of colours.