I’ve made a concerted start on weeding the front bed. I’ve doctored calendulas and put collars around the ones I’ve saved, so that they are more obvious. I’ve managed to get a good lot of weeds and grass out but there’s still a bit more weeding to do – and then mulching. I also disturbed numerous little onion-like allium bulbs. They’re the little white alliums, not the big purple ones.

Sitting on the bed edging, I also finally broke it, as one of the legs has rotted through. I have some spare, but would rather get a new leg on it than put a bright yellow panel in among the grey weathered ones.

In the afternoon Suzy and I took down the remaining two everlasting peas, not least because the trellis is probably a bit fragile, so I didn’t want just pull the plant through the holes. We’ve also trimmed back Mr B’s bramble too, as one very thick branch had grown up on my side. All the old fruit has been cut off too.

In the bed, I’ve made a good start on clearing, pulling out the verbenas in the wrong place, digging up nettles etc. Autumnal nasturtiums are having to take their chance while I do this.

I noticed a number of marigolds had been beheaded yesterday and piles of seed were on the ground here and there, which was unexpected as usually the seed cases dry on the plant and can be picked off. Today, the story became a little clearer when I discovered a piles of petals and seed at the border, dumped and carried through to what is clearly an animal run. Hopefully it’s not a rat and it’s just the field vole, though the smell of marigolds might not be attractive to them.

I’ve done some marigold deadheading and collected more seed. The leggy one had fallen over, so I’ve pulled that out now. The cosmos had fallen over for the million time and the one by the trellis cracked when I picked it up, so I pulled it out. I’ve also cut back all the annoying verbenas that were covering the paths and I’ve pulled up the ones at the front of the trellis bed, getting in the way of other tall plants.

I’ve finished cutting down all the mint now and keep pulling up whatever weeds I can as I go. The ground is a bit too wet for perfect weeding, but it’s not too bad.

After lunch I finished digging over Bed 1. There’s just a verbena left in it in case I want it elsewhere.

I made a good start on clearing up the front bed too. Lots of couch grass gone, nettles and weeds. There are lots of old haggard calendulas, which I’ll attend to in more detail, cutting them right down to the base and new growth. I’ve also dug up the mallow, which was a droopy nuisance this year. I was somewhat broken after all this, but managed to weed the end bit of the broccoli bed too.

I had a reasonable harvest. One proper sized carrot from the second sowing and a few thumb size ones from the first. I’ve brought back some apples for testing. Two had been eaten by something and then I picked one more, which doesn’t look amazing, but did come off fairly readily.

I’m moving into the slower work of autumn. It took forever to cut down this much mint and then cut it up for the rubbish bag. Another trip to the tip is coming soon and all the buckets of rubbish will be emptied again. The huge everlasting pea on the back fence will also be heading to the tip.

After lunch I attacked the ledge, pulling down more of the everlasting peas and pulling out grass and trying to clear up somewhat. The sweet williams are getting bigger and bigger and making good ground cover.

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.