After a lot of rain, there was a total of 3 litres of water in my buckets, but the pond was still as low as usual. When I pressed the patch on the beach, water came out from behind it, so clearly the UHU has not worked.

I cut down more borage, taking it down to where new buds have formed. I don’t want the mess and the seed drop, but I’m happy to let the bees have flowers for a while yet. The robin followed me around the garden as I worked.

Brambles are suddenly everywhere, with feet-long branches coming through the trellis and even through the apple tree to the ground. I’ve cut back an amount, but it’s going to be a proper ladder job to take them back to the fence.

The larkspur in the woodland bed is still flowering. I’m delighted it’s finally grown here and now it can seed down for colour in late summer next year.

There’s a little blight on Roma, so I’m just picking them as soon as they are a bit red and come off the branch easily. There’s still a reasonable harvest on the Red Alerts, though those plants aren’t looking amazing now either.

I also took home some  apples and pears to test – both picked and windfall. I’ve cleared up the rest of the windfalls to try and keep the crows away. I imagine they’re the ones responsible for picking a hole in the earwig shelter.

I scooped up the molehills as best I could in the long grass and made a little effort to refill the holes. I’ve kept the gathered soil in a bucket in the shed, so it’s available for further repair work as needed. I’m not sure if it’s ruining my oca. It’s gone all around the edges of the bed and there’s  a hill in the bed too.

I’ve given up on the sweet peas now. They would have lasted well a bit longer if I hadn’t let the deadheading go over Salzburg/Covid. I think I might do them next year now I’ve had some success.

I cut back the everlasting pea on the trellis and found a dead rat on the ground. Good to know the poison works, but it could have wandered off further to cark it.

Just before leaving I decided to get rid of the cosmos, but just pulled them up and put them on the compost heap as is. There’s been a very leafy nasturtium growing on the heap and it now has cabbage white eggs on the leaves.

I’ve cut back more pond roots to try and reduce the water theft. There’s a bit more that could be taken, but I can’t reach it. I filled the pond quite high, but it had sunk about a cm by the time I returned in the afternoon.

It’s now clear that I have a mole and there are little molehills all around the edges. So far it doesn’t seem to have damaged anything but the lawn. I mowed the lawn in the afternoon – 3 then 2 – , but I need to scrape up the earth and put it in the beds. I’m not up for strimming yet, still knackered after Covid, but I want to do more. It’s definitely tidy up time.

The beans are completely done now, but there were loads of tomatoes to harvest and plenty of Roma yet to ripen. The sweet peas are still going, but I have yet to deadhead them or anything else since before I went to Salzburg. The borage needs to be cut again. The whole plot has definitely has a slight autumnal yellow tinge to it now.

A number of apples have been falling, so I need to pick one and see how they taste. I also need to get rid of the huge brambles growing through the tree.   

 

I had intended to be back in the plot on the 21st, but I brought Covid back from Salzburg. We’d had some good rain, but annoyingly the pond level was back to below the beach, even though the patch seems to be holding. I’ll need to properly fill to know for sure though. A red dragonfly came to visit though, so it’s still a useful tiny pond.

There were loads of tomatoes to harvest, along with a bunch big beans and a cucumber that I only saw by chance. Somehow, the cosmos is still flowering, even though it’s in desperate need of deadheading. One of the plum tomato plants looks like it’s got the beginnings of blight, so I’m making sure to pick any of those tomatoes that will come.

The oca looks good in the back bed and all of a sudden I’ve got a beautiful pile of flowering verbena. Maybe I’ll be able to transplant them successfully into the back of the left bed over the next few months.

The length of the grass isn’t too bad, but I did find a little pile of earth – mole or vole? Perhaps that’s what disturbed the log a few weeks ago. There’s lots to do, but it feels more like it’s because of the season than the time I’ve had away. It’s pretty much time to start slowly clearing up now.

I was in Altmünster today, so Mum did the harvest. The tomatoes in particular won’t stop coming. I did the mowing and a bit of tidying before I went, but didn’t get to the deadheading, so that’s going to be a challenge when I come back.

I did another mend to the pond beach and found a young pond snail under the loose plastic piece. So it’s good to know that the eggs survived. I re-taped the pecked holes and then covered the whole area with a piece of plastic completely covered with UHU. Then of course I discovered that the UHU washed off my fingers with some water and rubbing, so all I can do is wait and see how effective this will be.

I’ve had a little look at deterrents to keep the crows away, but there isn’t really anything that wouldn’t keep the little birds away too. Perhaps some horizontal strings to make it difficult for them to stand there, but that would be difficult to establish. Unless it was free-standing … and then they’d probably throw it into the pond.

Good tidying work today. I did a mow on 2 and did some major deadheading of the sweet peas to keep them looking good and still flowering. 

The runner beans are still coming fast, so the harvest was beans and tomatoes, which are also starting to get going well. There’s also now a cucumber growing, so I should get one at some point.

I was fairly able to take a better look at the pond patch and it has indeed detached from the main sheet enough to let water through. So I imagine the tape directly over the holes has let go too. I’ve cleared the rocks out of the way and my next attempt will be with UHU. 

I did a bunch more trimming of the borage, cutting down to the next flower buds on the stalks. It’s hot working in the sun wearing my hoodie and a glove for protection, but I carried on doing horrid weeding, taking care of nettles, brambles and poppy seed heads.

The sunflowers have done very well, so I made sure to get a record of them. I’d like to do a better job of successional sowing with them next year, so they last even longer.

In the end it was too hot to do any further pond fixing, or even to come back in the afternoon. The water level is clearly still dropping, so I imagine the tape just isn’t up to the job.

The pond was low again today, which is a pain. I’ve cut some of the plant roots back and it turned out that they were really taking liberties and had even spread into the folds of the liner. I refilled the pond, but I’m also wondering if the tape has come up a little. The crows are still messing about with the pond and had left me one of my pebbles on the gate.

I never got around to doing a mid-week visit and so there was a lot of deadheading to do and a lot of big beans to pick. Mr B asked me how me my tomatoes were doing as his were soft and didn’t have any flavour. I gave him a Red Alert to try, which was apparently full of flavour, so he’s concluded that he’d been overwatering. So evidently I don’t need to worry too much about the fact that I don’t water very much.

The mint has taken over in triangle and as a result my dahlia is getting sat on. That’ll be another autumn job – to give it proper room to flourish. 

A feeding visit to keep everything growing well. A good deadheading session is already necessary again.

The finished nigella needs to be taken out of the woodland bed, but it’s still looking good overall. The larkspur is doing well and a beautiful little helianthus –  no doubt from the bird seed, even though its chipped seed – has appeared. I’m looking forward to seeing what seeds down for next year.

I was accompanied in the plot by a very young robin, who was surprisingly brave. After feeding, the harvest included blackberries, tomatoes and beans … although apparently I didn’t take a photo?

Today I strimmed the edges to make everything look tidier. In the left hand bed one of the smaller logs has been raised up by something disturbing the earth underneath it. The morning glory has just started to flower. Of course some of the early ones have gone straight next door and are facing that way.

I’ve supported the cucumber better. None of the fruits has survived yet, but there’s still time.

Harvest-wise I was able to take home the first tomatoes, beetroot and carrots. Getting the carrots out of the ground is a hell of a challenge, but netting the bed seems to have been a good idea.

I cut the borage back more. It’s probably already seeded down everywhere already, but not much will be kept next year. I’d forgotten how tall it gets, so I’ve taken a photo of the plot from the top of my ladder, as well as the usual panorama.