We’ve given the shed a mammoth clean and tidy up. Lots of cobwebs gone and spiders evicted, unused tools evicted and rubbish thrown away. Mr B came along while most of the shed contents were out on the grass, so he had to be reassured that I was not moving out. The grow house is now down at last and all the pots from home have been moved back to the shed until spring. I even gave the filthy chariot a good clean.

I’ve tidied up my collection of hugel sticks so far. The ones that were piled on the compost bag were home to a million woodlice, so they can’t go in the shed. I’m hoping that keeping them in this tray at least for now will keep them tidy and they can continue to weather.

I spent the morning pulling down and chopping up everlasting pea. All of sudden I can see the mess of the plot beyond, so the vines did a good cover up job this year. But they have to come down so that I can have half a chance of weeding and mulching the poor ledge.

I’ve dug up the everlasting pea that had planted itself in front of the veronica. Growing over the plant to the fence wasn’t helpful at all. It was a big piece of root, but not too difficult to get out. I’ve started just pulling up what grass I can – again, so that I can start to do the weeding and clearing properly. The weeds have really got out of control in my boundaries this year.

You can now see the helianthus by my gate as you come down the path towards the plot. It’s a nice autumnal welcome. I know that there are bits of grass and weeds in among the base of the stems, so I’ll have to work out how to get those out and maybe have some kind of spring/summer plant in there before the stems and flowers come up.

I just had a short morning shift today, so I’ve cut down all the lemon balm and mint in the triangle and chopped up a bit more of the never ending everlasting pea from the back. There’s so much of that, it might be an idea to mow it.

After picking four French beans, I pulled up the plants. That bed is now weeded and the edging is finished.

I’ve also pulled up the two little Cosmos. They looked rather like they’d been frosted, but I’m not aware of any frosts – and the nasturtiums are still fine. I pulled down the big sunflower stalk and sawed it up for my hugel collection.

I’ve pulled down more of the everlasting peas and cut down physostegia for the autumn. The veronica is still standing because it’s half threatening to flower again. The compost bin is very full, but settles a bit each week. I checked the leaf bin and it was quite hot.

I’ve cut the hyssop back to near its base and it’s sprouting along what you’d think was old wood, all very close to the base. So maybe I’ll be able to regrow and reshape it. Remains to be seen what it’s like to dig up and replant. I imagine the root ball is fairly big.

In the afternoon I focused on digging up docks and weeds from Bed 1. It’s more than half done, so that’s a good start. As with the bean bed, there’s a big self-sown verbena that I’m keeping for the moment in case I want to transplant it somewhere.

After a very rainy and windy Saturday, there was 6 litres of water in my bucket. The sunflower was leaning a bit, some cosmos branches had been broken and a couple of the marigolds were somewhat beaten up. There were a few apples on ground, but that’s not really news at the minute.

I dismantled the borlotto bean wigwam and snipped off the last pods. They have big beans inside the damp pods, so they’re worth trying to dry out at home.

I’ve also dismantled the cucumber wigwam, so there’s just the uchiki kuri netting left to go. In an effort to keep on with the tidying, lots of docks have been dug out of beds, the straw has been raked up from Bed 1 and the borage has all been pulled up and chopped up too. I figure that the bees still have plenty of marigolds to visit.

I took home a lunchtime harvest, including the fallen flowers and felled sunflower head. The pear was a windfall, which has been half eaten underneath. None of the others seem ready to come off yet – nor are they anything like this size.

After lunch I edged and weeded the half of the bed that hadn’t been done yet. So this bed is just some flowers for now.

I’ve dug up the sweetcorn stalks at long last and done the weeding in that section. The robin buzzed by me a few times in a panic before coming to visit for a moment on the other side of the bed from me. We’ve not had any rain for ages (some forecast for tomorrow though) but the soil wasn’t hard, just dry and fairly powdery.

I’ve weeded and edged this side of the tomato bed, taking out all kinds of horrid things. I’ve also collected up lots of orchid nasturtium seed, which is now balanced in an overfilled pot on the back shelf in the shed.

I’ve weeded and edged this side of the bean bed too, which has made it look much better. I’ve also taken out a few big thistles and weeds from other beds, which kept catching my eye. One bean plant was nearly out of the ground, but I’ve put it back in and with any luck it’ll survive until tomorrow’s rain, because I was devoid of energy to do any needed watering.

As preparation for future renovations I’ve put weedkiller on a variety of particularly annoying docks and dandelions in the grass. I’ve also done the nettles that were starting to grow back by the compost bin.

When I started the deadheading, it wasn’t long before the robin came to see me, checking out where I’d pulled out the uchiki kuri plants. I’ve cleared up those vines and some more pumpkin vines.

I’ve cleared up a good bit from the front bed, including the huge nettle that was taking over. I’ve started to reduce the big grass heap that I had to make outside my fence from the car park by integrating it into my weed buckets. We’ll no doubt be back at the tip before too long.

I carried on doing lots of tidying after lunch, cutting down, pulling down and chopping up. This also included an interlude of web work in the shed with my hoodie over my head and laptop. Speaking to H while clearing up by the apple tree, I was serenaded with: “Don’t sit under the apple tree / With anyone else but me / Or I’ll kill you”.

This bed still looks rubbish, but I’m still working on chopping down and pulling up. Lots of bramble, toadflax and everlasting pea has gone.

Grass mowing today; managed to get it done before it got too long again. While Mum mowed, I did some deadheading and harvested the last two uchiki kuru, some more broccoli and a couple of beetroot  – one of which was growing another baby beetroot halfway up its stem. We’ve taken most of the remaining beans off the very bare borlotto bean vines. Remainders can either dry off a bit more, or head to the compost, depending on my mood. The first good quality windfall has also come home for a taste test.

There was a very dim-looking bird looking at me when I went through the main gate this evening. He just sat looking at me and I was busy taking photos of him when someone came up by the car and asked if she should shut the gate for me. I made it clear that I hadn’t just been waiting for someone to come along and do it for me 😄

I’ve now picked most of the borlotti beans. Not all fed quite dry, but they’ll be harvested soon. The pumpkins looked a bit drier all of a sudden too, so I’ve taken them in before any mice help themselves. Bed 1 is now ready for proper weeding and clearing.

I’ve cut back a bucketful of mint, which had suddenly sprawled everywhere. Over on the ledge there’s way too much that’s gone leggy and flopped over. There definitely needs to be some thinning out of my tall plants. I discovered a big thrift that I didn’t even know was there. Over in the triangle, I went looking for the base of the hyssop (also completely sprawling) and discovered that it’s way too close to the fence and everlasting pea. It’s going to get a really tough cut back and be moved. If it survives, great. If not, I’ll try again.

I did about an hour of deadheading and cutting back first of all and then moved on to all kinds of autumnal tidying. The courgettes have suddenly given up, so they’re now on the compost heap. I have a new theory about who got the last sweet corn as there’s a track in the grass that goes from the fence line – where I saw the field vole – to the corn.

I cut back an amount of the gourd vines and then ended up harvesting one pumpkin, one uchiki kuru and both the Jack Be Little. A lot of vines have gone to compost and I’ve made start on scooping up the straw and what weeds come with it. There are enough weeds that the straw has to go the tip this year. I’ve cut the borage down a bit further, down to the next flower buds. So Bed 1 looks different all of a sudden.