The robin was on the fencepost before I’d even got to my shed door. I changed his coconut and put down some mealworms. The empty coconut has gone to be the second helping to keep up the wooden edging at the back of the ledge. For now at least, I’ll be sticking empty coconuts around the beds as drinking stations as part of my wildlife work.

I also have a new bug hotel thanks to my Secret Santa, so I need to find a home for that. It needs to face south-ish, so possibly on the back fence at 90º to the other one, or near the front of the shed.

Suzy and I had collected some more rotting wood from a big pile in the park and I took it down to the plot in two trips. The long branch pieces have gone along the fence line (still far to go) and some big fat pieces of bark have gone under the apple tree, on top of the hedgehog house and stood along the fence line.

I did some more staring at the pond and noticed that there are a couple of little shoots on the purple loosestrife. I’ve swapped the log piece by the beach again and covered the liner a bit better. Hopefully the marsh marigold will help in the spring too.

I’m planning to take the stones off the front ledge in the spring and build up some earth below them when it’s less wet and not going to fall straight into the pond. I’m wondering about putting the perfect piece of wood just beyond the chamomile to help the birds etc have another platform for drinking.

The liner on the left hand side is more of a problem and I have big hopes for the spring and the creeping jenny. But I think that some wood might be needed behind the sweet flag though, if I can find the right piece that will sit right.

Wind had blown more twigs out of the tree, so I continued building my big pile around the base of the tree. I’m going to leave the volunteer hawthorn to grow, as it’ll be a good support / habitat for the tree. D had had a delivery of conifer wood chip during the week and I collected a few scoops of it  and threw them into corner among the twigs and half-filled the two empty flower pots with it too.

I’ve put a small bunch of elodea into the pond to try and help against the small amount of algae that’s grown. The thinking being that it can go to work while the hornwort is dormant at the bottom of the pond. The water has cleared a little bit more, but it still quite cloudy.

The allotment was under water today and the wind was ridiculous, so I just emptied my bag of crab apple leaves into the bin, put a few bamboo trays into the shed and stared at the mess in there for a while before heading home. I can’t tidy the shed up without opening the door and putting stuff outside and that wasn’t an option today.

As an experiment I’ve tied a coconut to the chicken wire of the fence, with the hope that only the robin will be able to get at it. The rooks have no problem being in the tree or on the fenceposts, but hopefully they’re not ones for clinging on to the fence. I’ll have to go back in a few days to be sure.

The logs at the back of the bed look great, so I must make sure I keep collecting them. Maybe they’ll be houses for slugs, but maybe I won’t since I don’t get many any more. Come on, toads and frogs, come and help me out.

It was 0ºC when I headed out this morning. Come the afternoon shift, it had climbed to a grand 1ºC. The pond was frozen, but had thawed a bit around the edges, so there was room to get in and out should anyone wish.

The robin’s back to haunt me, arriving on the fencepost as soon as I’d opened the shed door. I’ve hung the first coconut of the season, which I’m sure the rooks will find too.

The mustard was still standing after all the recent frosts, but a few leaves here and there were starting to look damaged. Since the ground was frozen here and there, I decided to just get on and chop it down. I did that for the tall plants while Mum covered most of the beds before I joined her. Some of the plastic sheets need to be re-done, which is probably a job I set myself last winter. It’s going to have to wait for a still spring day though … or next winter.

In the afternoon I made a start on weeding the ledge. Lots of weeds are now gone and I’ve also tidied up the sea thrift and fleabane a bit as they suddenly seemed huge. I came across one of the annoying shoots of everlasting pea and started digging only to find that it was coming from a huge root that was quite a job to get out.

A dry week and a sunny Saturday at last, so the plot was a good bit drier than it’s been recently. I continued clearing the front bed and pulled up most of the nigella and all the lemon balm. It’s time to make the front bed more perennial/shrub based, with small annuals like lobelia filling any gaps as needed.

I’ve gathered the gladioli bulbs I dug up, including a few that I have had in the nursery since the digging of the pond, and put them in more of a clump near the pear tree. That reduces what’s up against the fence for cover, but I’ll keep thinking about that.

The geum has moved along to the left and I’ve put the callicarpa in between the geum and the lupin. I made an attempt to reduce the advance of the helianthus a bit, getting rid of some of the roots. I discovered a small lupin near the helianthus, but put it back in the same place. With cleared soil and some attention it might do better next year.

A day off to make up for losing Sunday to all kinds of events. The ground was pretty wet, but I managed to clear the remainder of the left hand bed, making room for the new Russian sages I bought with birthday money. I mixed up buckets of sand and compost to add to the wet ground, to help the plants not drown.

In the afternoon I moved to the front bed and placed the big logs I had taken from the park. The idea is to build up as many nature corridors as I can all around the plot. I’m hoping to also suppress some weeds, though no doubt the grass will just go underneath. I’ve started clearing the nigella from the bed and the geum will be moving to the left to make room for the new callicarpa.

After more rain overnight, the ground in most of the allotment was super squelchy. However, the right hand side was fine and in two shifts I managed to weed and mostly clear the whole of the trellis bed. It was absolutely smothered in weeds and is now reduced to the perennials I want to keep. I now need to decide if there’s room for any more perennials from the nursery, or if the only additions should be small, at the front.

I’m going to keep all the  plants in the nursery in their pots over winter. Then in the spring they’ll be settled enough to cope with another transplanting and warm enough to get growing again.

There was a corn cockle plant in the bed that I had left standing and with the rain we’ve had, the seeds in the seed pods had germinated and started growing. It was quite a sight, but didn’t have much of a future, so crumbled the pods and sprinkled the seeds in a big patch near Mr B’s gate.

The bits of bark had fallen into the pond, but I was able to get them out. The big bit of silver birch was half resting on the beach, while the big piece of oak had sunk right to the bottom, but I eventually found it with some gentle fishing about with the grabbers. The water has cleared a little bit more and I can see a fine layer of earth on the top folds of the liner. All the plants were still fine, which was pleasing.

I didn’t get a great deal done, but I guess cutting down the right hand everlasting pea for the compost, and making a whole bucket of weeds isn’t nothing. The ground’s very wet at the moment, which means I need to settle properly on a job and get something to sit on.

The mint by the elder is absolutely full of grass that I can’t get out, so I think the mint might have had its day. Clearing the patch as well as I can and starting again there with a different perennial would allow me to have some control over the fence line grass.

I noticed a small entrance hole at the bottom of the compost (displaced mouse perhaps?) so I’ve finally reloaded the bait station and put it round the back on the poles.

Big day for the pond. The first job was to throw the hornwort into the water, where it sunk out of sight. In the winter it’s dark green and sinks to the bottom, but in the spring it will rise back up and be a better colour. A few bits had broken off the main piece, so it’ll be interesting to see if they sprout too.

The new creeping jenny has gone into the water, with the pot on one of my bricks. I’ll see when the water clears whether that needs any adjusting, but it at least doesn’t feel precarious.

Once established on my ladder across the pond (which later turned out to have given me huge bruises on my legs), I managed to straighten the sweet flag a bit on its bricks. With Mum’s help I then set to building up the side and back banks, removing the tiles and replacing them with pieces of wood and filling in with piles of soil. As I went, I added blue iris bulbs among the white mazes, purple loosestrife, veronica and thyme. I’d planned all the positioning the night before in Photoshop and made my list of instructions, which was invaluable.

The marsh marigold is just a tiny shoot at the moment, and is among the stones near the big rock. A beautiful piece of bark foraged from the rec is covering the pole it’s planted on and some of the exposed compost/root system. Another thyme – less trailing than the other has been planted behind the rock.

In the afternoon I worked on planting two dwarf chamomiles and a pink phlox on the front edge. I hope to have given them enough soil for their roots to be happy. Fingers crossed they’ll be ok.

I foraged some lovely bits of wood from the remains of the wood chip pile outside D’s plot and tucked them into the banks here and there for shelter and liner coverage. The pebbles then went all around the edge and I added a few handfuls carefully onto the marginal shelf as accurately as I could. I’ll have to wait for the water to clear more to see what it looks like and if I want to add more. I probably have a bit under half a bag left. Thank goodness I didn’t use cobbles; they would have been far too big.

I also finally found a use for the third paddlestone. It has made a perfect toad house just beyond the big stone, with wood, leaves, pebbles and mud making a great hide hole, just as I had wanted.

With everything in place, I cut the liner back from the grass, covered the edge with soil and sprinkled a little grass seed to help the ground recover. I started the pond project on 6th October and finished (but for a couple of tiny finesses I want to make) on 5th November. 4 weeks and 2 days; 9 allotment days.

A day off among the rain to make progress on the pond. I dug more poles out of the pile and rearranged the far side’s structure, putting a larger pole more towards the front to act as the pond edge. It’s sat on an edging piece stolen from the bug hotel to keep it up and straight. I’m trying to avoid tiles being used or visible.

I’ve filled in the left and back with more soil, putting tiles against the back fence for support. One white mazus has gone in at the left front corner and the creeping jenny has gone in near the poles, with the aim of covering the liner that I don’t want to cut down any further. Along the front I’ve pinned hessian under the pole, so that soil along the front edge has something to hold onto. I’m thinking along the lines of a mixture of grass and other low-lying creeping plant. Quite possibly another creeping Jenny because I’ve read it barely needs soil.

The green slate looks good and is grey enough to merge well with the pebbles. The smaller stone has gone onto the left corner with stones, earth and plants around it. I’ve built up the back edge with more sand under the liner, so it’s high enough to not be flooded any more. I’ve put the big stone over there and used its flat side as a support for building up soil.

I’ve put bricks under the sweet flag to bring it up, but I’ll need to straighten it a bit when the water clears and I can see what I’m doing. The iris can go down to 60cm, so it’s just sat on the ledge and will hopefully show itself more in the spring.

Two purple loosestrife are on their way, to go in the far corner and halfway along the back ledge. A marsh marigold will go into earth I’ve built up by the big stone. That leaves me with another white mazus and a blue veronica. The white mazus could go in front of the middle back tile, and the veronica could go in the mound just by the big rock. I’m expecting the loosestrife to spread well, but I may do a very light sprinkle of poppy seeds on the banks too. I also have a beautiful piece of bark from the rec, which I want to place as a hidey hole – perhaps over the earth in the back corner.