The tomatoes and peppers have been tiny for ages, making no progress. I’m hoping that some fresh compost and another round of seaweed solution will help them along. They’ve been potted on, out of the fibre pots, along with lots of zinnias, some sunflowers, and the kalette.

At the plot the first carrots were finally showing, next to some slightly bigger lettuce. Still next to no germination. Reading back through previous years, getting the veg up could happen around now, or it could still be a couple of weeks.

At home, I sowed a small tray of Carmine King Californian poppies, more marigolds in the big tray and transferred the few good marigolds into their own little pots.

The runner beans are taking off big time, but I discovered that I was missing a French bean, so that’s been resown.

I’ve put the shop lobelia into slightly bigger cells so that they don’t die on me all of a sudden. That left a row of empty cells, so I’ve sown blue clary in there.

At the plot, we added some water to the butts and tipped out the useless lobelia seed tray out along the left border. I added the two clumps that had grown a little more carefully near the shed, but didn’t actually bother to water them.

The blackbird had been digging about again in a few beds, so we tidied up and then covered Bed 7 to curtail the biggest mess.

Some major digging had been happening in Beds 7, 10, 11 and a few little bits elsewhere, with even hügel sticks pulled out. I was all prepared to blame the field vole, but when Mr B came along, he was able to share that he had seen the culprit in action: a blackbird. The compost is so dry and loose that it’s really easy for the bird to kick about. There’s no telling where my flower seed is now. I could really do with some rain.

Today’s job of planting the potatoes (instead of the kalettes) was heralded by three potato haulms sticking out of the compost heap. I shall let them grow as long as is practical just for fun.

I’m trying a new method with the potatoes: not earthing up, but instead burying the potatoes nice and deep and letting them get on with it. I’ve put them 8″ down, which is in the soil below the newspaper layer. I’ve added half a bag of manure on top of the bed too, which wasn’t much thickness and I’m sure the blackbird will kick it off before tomorrow.

The apple tree is blossoming now and the pear tree is now showing a number of small fruit.

Although there’s been no rain to set off the seeds I’ve sown, the perennials are really waking up now. Bed 3 is a good example with its poppies and yarrow. The helianthus is also much bigger than last week. And the new perennials I’ve planted are all doing ok.

At home, I potted on my shop-bought lobelia into slightly bigger pots and sowed 6 new La Diva cucumbers. I’ve evidently overwatered a couple of my cucumbers as they’ve gone limp and died. Two remain and have true leaves though, so hopefully they’ll make it.

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.