I’ve sown a new lettuce mix at home. I’ve covered the top with vermiculite and so far it seems to be keeping the birds off!

It’s been raining a lot, and so parts of my plot were squidgy and others were underwater.

I uncovered Beds 4 and 10, raked them over, added phosphorous and then topped with a layer of new compost.

I’ve planted 48 onions in Bed 4. One was mouldy, one was small and caused an odd number, so I threw them onto the compost bin.

I realised on the way out that Plum Corner is far too full of lemon balm, so a bunch of that needs to come out and a number of cornflowers could fill the gaps. One of the cornflowers in Bed 7 has a bud, so I really need to do something with them.

Since things are starting to grow now, I’ve sprinkled grass seed in the emptiest areas. Some of those are covered by my walking blocks, so those can protect the seed quite nicely.

It’s been raining a lot recently, but it was clear this afternoon and the wind had died down a bit, so I was able to get down to the plot and do some weeding. Plum Corner was quite muddy but I made a good first pass at it. A bit more lemon balm needs to be removed and some nettles. I shall probably have room for a couple of cornflowers when the soil is drier.

The soil was better drained in the front bed and I got out lots of a broad-leaved weed and grass. One lupin has a rotten side and was being taken over by a lemon balm, so it’s a bit smaller than other specimens. Hopefully it might catch up a bit with some more room to breathe.

I’ve propped up the pear tree a bit, as it still insists on leaning and getting caught in the fence. Maybe it’ll stand up for a minute before it overpowers the prop. Similarly, I’ve added a third wooden prop to the saggiest fence post in the trellis bed. That’s stood it up quite well, but it could really do with a guy rope the other side.

To help the elder and apple tree out a bit, I’ve thrown a few handfuls of chicken pellets underneath them. Tonight’s rain can water that it.

First seeds of the season have been sown:

• 6 x Giant Double zinnia
• 6 x La Diva cucumbers
• 6 x Red Alert tomatoes

Absolute failures last year, so let’s see how we do this year. The tomato and cucumber seed is fresh, while the zinnias were bought last year and have multiple resows written on the packet.

I’ve used vermiculite for the first time: 1 part vermiculite to 4 parts compost.

My gate was open when I got to the plot to do what were supposed to be some quick errands. It fastened perfectly well behind me and it turned out that it was indeed a sign that I’d had intruders. But, unable to see through my cloudy windows anymore, they’d tried to break in through the door. Half the left hand panel was broken, but still in place and the door had been ripped away from the top of the diagonal support.

I’d not been down for a couple of weeks, but we’ve had some very heavy rain and there was no sign of dampness inside, which makes me wonder if this happened recently, maybe even last night.

I did a video call home to confer on the damage and then Mum came down to help me do a temporary repair, screwing the top of the door to the horizontal support and adding a piece of wood inside to help close the crack back together.

On the positive side, all my garlic is up and growing well, and the robin kept me company all the while. He was standing in a gap in the fence (now repaired, in case it worked as a foothold) when I checked around the plot and didn’t leave my side while I video called home. He took some persuading to get out of the shed.

I opened up Bed 11 and found that all the poppies had completely rotted away, leaving beautiful soil. I must think more about green manure and possibly leaving beds open for the crop to be killed by frost. This would help build up the bed filling without just buying compost all the time.
(There are two robins in this picture: one in the bed and one on the post on the other side of the chicken wire.)

I added a sprinkling of coffee from my full 20 litre bucket, and I need to add a layer of compost to it.

I put coffee over where I’d weeded on the right and moved some cornflowers into the gaps. One is particularly big. Hopefully they’ll now self-seed in the boundary bed.

The new coconut (which I’d tied to the tree after yesterday’s theft) was on the floor and pecked clean. Seems like I might not be able to put up any more without some kind of crow prevention.

In the afternoon I weeded the triangle, constantly accompanied by the robins. I pulled up the kalette and chopped it up for the compost. I’m hoping a bird might notice all the whitefly and enjoy a snack.

The garlic was almost all up this morning, so I watered the bed as we’ve not had rain in a while.

My friend the robin arrived in the tree as soon as I went to hang up the new coconut. A coconut that was entirely missing when I went back in the afternoon, most likely stolen by the crow that came into the plot a couple of times. I had both robins bobbing about; one of them likes to stand on the fencepost right by the nest box.

I weeded all along the trellis bed and into the triangle. The soil is not bad for weeding at the moment. I’ve made room near the gate so I can transplant some of the cornflowers from Bed 7.

In the afternoon we put 2 bags of manure on Bed 1. Half a bag went onto Bed 5 and the other half went onto Bed 4, leaving a little to finish from another bag. All those beds got coffee grounds.

I did the last verbena cutting down this morning. I was clever enough to wear a glove, so didn’t get scratched to death for once. The cutting down is now all done. Now it’s a matter of weeding and getting the winter grass out, but the ground isn’t very crumbly yet, so it wouldn’t be easy to start now.

I can imagine making a bit of space in the left bed, so that would be a good place to put a number of the cornflowers that have overwintered in Bed 7.

While I wait for the ground to loosen up a little more, I think the next job needs to be getting manure into the low beds. I’ll need a lot of bags to bring the level, so need to make a start on that. I also want to mulch the borders with manure as they could do with some care.

I took Matt and Sam down to the allotment this morning and let them loose on the fruit trees. Sam didn’t take much off the pear, but Matt happily did some major pruning on the apple tree in just a few minutes. The main branch was cut off cleanly with just a couple of strokes. Also particularly pleasing: the smaller branches were put on my compost heap, but cut up first, not just dumped.

I stayed behind after they’d gone and finished the cutting down along the right hand side. Tomorrow I’ll be scratching myself silly when I attack the verbenas.

The first tete a tete is out now, with more fattening up. Lots of bulbs have come up, but I’m not entirely sure what’s what yet. I think the irises are up in a ring around the middle.

I did lots of cutting down, along the ledge and the trellis bed. I made nesting material coconuts for the beds with dry grass and moss, as well as lots of the thing twiggy fleabane cuttings.

I’ve discovered that the toadflax is fairly shallow rooted. I’ve pulled up some that was clearly in the wrong place but I’m happy that I’ll be able to take out more pretty easily later in the year if I want to.

I’ve taken down all the helianthus too – all but the thickest stems just snapped off at ground level. The lemon balm has grown back into the area that the helianthus covers, but there’s no way I can get it out now, so I don’t care.

I harvested all the remaining parsnips. They were mostly little ones, but a couple were reasonable and good for a roast dinner. I might try them again another year.

We delivered 3 bags of compost to the plot today. Looking around at the beds, lots more compost and manure will be needed to bring most of the beds somewhat higher. I need to make sure I use the cheaper manure where bulk is particularly needed.

Bed 8 only needed one bag this year though. I think the blackbird had already kicked it about a bit when I went back after lunch. Two whole bulbs of garlic have gone it. They’re 4″ in from the sides and the cloves are 6″ apart, except at each end, where I’ve put 4 remaining little cloves into the final gaps.