I’ve bought some trays of lobelia as my seedlings are still tiny and barely making any progress. I’ve also fed all the larger seedlings at home with seaweed extract. They’re not doing too badly, but only one kalette is really worth saving. I think I’ll put it on the end of the onion bed. King Edward potatoes from home are currently chitting as  Bed 10 replacement.

The compost beds seem dry on top, but if you dig down a little, they are retaining moisture, which is a relief. We’ve not had any rain in a long time, so I’m watering the sown beds and the new plants. The salad is just starting to appear.

I’ve broadcast more seed:

• flax along the ledge and trellis bed
• corn cockle back of left border and in a patch, mid left Bed 7
• malope top centre of Bed 7
• cornflowers all over, inc. long mid section on right of Bed 7
• poppies all over, inc. top and bottom of Bed 7

I’ve started tying up the everlasting peas, just a few little shoots. I’m determined to keep them under control this year. 

Now that all the weeding is done, I’ve finally broadcast some flower seed. The flax Bright Eyes and some old red flax seed I had has gone in the front bed and here and there in Bed 3 (where lots of poppies are coming up).

There was very little Poppy Dawn Chorus seed and it’s gone in at the gate end of the left border. There was much more nigella Persian Jewels seed, so that’s been sown in patches in the left, right and front beds.

I’ve fed the new plants and old transplants with seaweed. I hope the this will help strengthen the patch of geum splits in Plum Corner that are looking a bit pathetic.

There are a few droppings by the water butts, which I’m hoping are field vole droppings rather than rat. I think the size and shape indicates vole. But I could do with the vole not continuing to dig wildly in my beds.

I’ve done some more major weeding and put in the last couple of new perennials – a lupin and a new physostegia. I’ve also added a couple of pieces of geum to the shed end of the bed. It’s quite something to have this bed back to normal. From now on, I’ve got to simply try and fight back the couch grass whenever I can.

I’ve taken big clumps of grass out of the front bed and there are lots of perennials already firing up.

I’ve added a scoop of discarded clay to the bug hotel beds to try and help them retain water. I’ve sown a handful of dropped iris nasturtium seed to each bed and dropped the last seeds in my hand around the hotel. The dead nettle is coming to life and has softened the look of the structure nicely. The broadcast poppy seed has also germinated.

Since I’ve been clearing ground, I went shopping in the morning for some perennials that will hopefully stand half a chance against the couch grass.

A white lupin has gone in near Mr B’s gate and a red geum has gone in where the hyssop and lavender were. I might need to pull it forward a bit as the white everlasting pea does tend to get quite big.

I have a little rot-weiss-rot section now: a red geum, white lupin and a red lupin. I have a bunch of dug up geum that will be replanted tomorrow. There’s another section yet to weed and since there’s a bunch of grass in it, I’m not sure how many holes I’ll have to rearrange and fill. A new physostegia and a geum are yet to go in.

A couple of sparrows were hanging out close to the nest box when I turned up. I think one even hopped up to the hole for a moment.

The tulips are all up now and are very pretty. I want more of all sort for this bed now!

There were strange holes all over the back bed and here and there in a couple of other beds. A couple of bits of edging cardboard had been pulled out too. I think due to the depth of a few of the holes, it’s the field vole being a nuisance rather than crows. Fortunately the garlic was unaffected.

 

My big job all morning was digging up grass. I went from the apple tree all the way down to the elder. I’ve dug up the fairly dead lavender as I clearly can’t get them to grow in the allotment. Then I started working from the shed to the geum. That still leaves the awful bit I haven’t touched yet.

The helianthus has started to sprout again and I’m happy to leave what’s at the base – a few bits of nigella and lemon balm. As all along the front bed, there are various patches of grass that need to be pulled up.

In the afternoon I sowed:

• 8 x runner beans
• 8 x French beans (2 spares)
• 4 x kalettes to replace the nonsense seedlings
• replacement zinnia and sunflowers

More sowing:

• 30 x morning glory
• seed tray of marigolds – the germination seems to be rubbish

My new narcissus is awake, as is the first of the tulips. There’s a new tall narcissus and I think yet another type is coming along. That was a good varied bag.

The onions are sprouting and I only had to tuck a couple back in again. One felt a bit squishy, but I’ve put it back in just in case it still goes.

The pear blossom has arrived and the apple tree is just starting to sprout green.

Bed 5 is now open and hopefully the birds will eat the ants that I’ve revealed. As it’s going to be a root vegetable bed, I added phosphorus to it, as well as the relevant sections of beds 4 and 8.

I’ve split beds 4 and 8 and marked up the rows even if they’re not needed yet. I’ve sown ½ a row of carrot, ¼ of a row of chard and ½ a row of lettuce mix  in Bed 4, and ½ a row of beetroot in Bed 8.

In the afternoon I topped up beds 1, 5, 6 and 9 with more compost.

I sowed three rows of parsnip in Bed 5, hoping that the ants will just vacate the area. Having opened up Bed 1 to add more compost, I discovered some weeds breaking through from the layer of my compost. So much for the sterile layer on top. I picked those out and did some general pick weeding around the plot.

I’ve sown:

• 4 x Mini munch cucumbers (4 more to follow)
• 6 x Czech Bush tomatoes
• 4 x Roma tomatoes
• 2 x Mars pumpkins

Time to tackle the couch grass. The only way to get the grass out was to dig everything up and start again. Apparently couch grass starts growing in cold temperatures, so it can get established before the perennials wake up to take up their space.

I cleared this much before the end of the day / my energy and replanted all bulbs and put the divided geum pieces close together towards the corner. Then the verbena has all gone back near the fence, with the hope that it’ll keep the grass back a little bit and all I’ll be able to do at that point is just nip it off at the top. I’m not sure how things are going to proceed when I get feather down the bed to the mat-forming perennials, as I can’t just dig them up.

Digging all the damp clay was hard work, so it’s going to be interesting this year, having beds full of compost. They’ll be much lighter to work, but will they bring their own oddities?

I got Bed 4 edged before lunch. There were some ants among the newspaper from last year, but no sign of any ant hills.

Mum strimmed all around the beds, which worked well – no more shears for the beds, just the 3 log-edged boundaries save the grass being blown over the beds. The strimmer kept needing its cord pulling out again, but it didn’t take too long to work how to do it.

After lunch I lined the bed with cardboard and packed up what little was left in the shed to go back for recycling. I’m gradually getting my floorspace back.

Manure in – I have one unopened bag and two half bags left, which can be used for mulching at the end of the season.

I think I’ll need another round of compost. I have a few half bags left, but two or three beds need topping up and will probably need a bit more.

I’ve finally cut down all the verbena from the left border. There are lots of new shoots coming at the bottom of the plants. I need to work on getting the grass out now.

The compost has been growing tiny blades of grass and Bed 7 had a green haze to it, so I’ve disturbed it all with the rake, hoping that it will be enough to unroot and kill it.