I’ve started a hugel stick collection for possible use in my renovated beds. The latest additions are a couple of big sticks/logs, which had rolled out of the hedge by the main entrance.

The leaf mould bin has now been almost filled with the compost that had come out of the bin, plus the bags of shredded oak leaves. The pile of black bags had condensed a fair amount so I was surprised to find how much there was.

As another part of my ongoing improvements, I’ve laid a half slab in front of the left hand water butt. I can get a bucket under there ok, so wanted to preserve that. I’m also planning to properly cut off the end of the left boundary, so it doesn’t just descend into weeds all the time.

The leaf bin project is almost complete! I cut down the red geum that keeps getting in the way on the compost bin and cleared up the end section of the ledge. Then it was on to clearing the nettles from the side of the shed. Fortunately almost all of them were simply coming through from the other side. Alongside bundles and bundles of bindweed, the nettles filled a whole sack.

We’ve scraped out all the spilled/thrown compost that was sitting between the bin and shed. All the bits of wood and old canes have been sorted, then put back along the ground, as flat as we can make them. It’s unlikely that I’ll need the big poles at any point, so this is the easiest way to deal with them. I’ve put down tiles on the ledge, ready for the leaf mould bin tomorrow.

We had company from a comma caterpillar, and the robin was back. He hopped about very near to us and I came across him on the compost heap, having evidently found some goodies among the compost we’d scraped up and returned to the top of the heap.

The robin came to see me today, taking the opportunity to sit on my basket, stand in the shed doorway and on the water bottles and then tour all around the plot near me while my phone sat in the basket.

I fed the cucumbers, courgettes, French beans and some flowers. I’ve given up on the runner beans now. There are a last few pods to pick, but no flowers are forming in spite of feed. While there are still crops growing, it’s time to start tidying up what’s done.

The morning glories are finally putting on a bit of a show. They’ve done very little to cover my fences (most didn’t show up) so that plan didn’t work. I’ve concluded that they need to wrap around things, which they can’t really do on the fence. But a range of canes might be a good way to make a screen.

Bed 3 has been looking a mess since the yarrow fell over weeks ago. Today was finally the day to tackle it, as I had noticed that there was a pad of new growth at the bottom of the plants. I sat between them and the mint, cutting the stalks for the compost and was accompanied by lots of bees and a butterfly on the mint flowers.

With the bulk of the tidying done, this already looks so much better. But there’s a bunch more to do yet. I haven’t seen most of my boundaries in so long. I really want to cut those back as part of tidying this up.

In the afternoon I moved on to making a start on doing other tidying to try and keep tackling what’s annoying me around the place. I’ve done the deadheading and made the lupin in the front bed look much better. The big old stalks have gone and an amount of the outside grass has been pulled up.

Over on the ledge, I did lots of everlasting pea tidying, cut down sweet williams to the new growth and general fought the weeds that have made their home there. Lots more to do, but a small patch was won.

I also went round all plants, including the veg such as courgettes and pumpkins, looking for any dead leaves to cut off, to make the general colour more green than yellow/brown. I’ve also taken all the spent tops off the borage. Some of them look like they have new buds lower down.

It’s been an odd summer of growth, but I am noticing that some of my flower beds are overcrowded, or have too many tall things in my effort to hide my neighbours. As such, they have a bit of tendency to flop all over themselves, especially if weeds from next door give them a push.

There are gladioli all over the place – it would be nice if they multiply, as they’re good late summer colour. This is my favourite, over by Mr B’s gate.

In an effort to get things going again, I’ve fed everything in the plot – tomato food for flowering and fruiting veg, and general feed for everything else, including the borders.

I’ve made a start on attacking the parts that have been bugging me by looking scraggy and untidy. I’ve cut back bits of the lupin which had been cut before and half died and half grown new leaves. Along with some deadheading, this corner is now looking a bit more pleasing on my way in and out.

I’ve started doing similar tidying in the front bed: cutting back, pulling up etc. I’ve also tied up all the gladioli, which mostly fell over as soon as they appeared – in part because everything else had already laid down. There’s a gladiolus that’s gone through the fence to Mr B’s path, so that will probably be a cut flower so I get to see it.

I’ve done some tidying of the everlasting peas too, particularly on the right boundary, where the pea fell down long ago in the wind. I’ve cut down all the flop. I don’t expect further growth, but it looks better know. The hyssop never has the chance to stand upright, so probably needs to be moved to where it can.

The chard sunflower is now open and beaming down at me. It at least has the good manners to be facing into the plot, unlike so many of my flowers.

A visit to the plot for a little harvest elicited the year’s first sweet corn. The broccoli is coming alive now too.  I’ve harvested the two rubbish-looking cucumbers. Hopefully the plants will turn the corner soon.

I finished weeding below the beans and turned up the soil a little, sprinkling in a little sulphate of potash – two scant scoops for what is roughly a square metre. I’ve pulled off more dead foliage and we keep picking beans, so I hope they’ll turn a corner soon.

While the uchiki kuri looks like it’s bust its way through the netting, doing some weeding showed that another junior pumpkin has been injured. It’s now on the compost heap. It looks like I have 4 good pumpkins though.

The tallest sunflower is now open – and seemed to have a bee on it the entire time I was there.

After some more weeding, I added in some filler bedding plants. They’re little yellow zinnias, all planted with a sprinkle of Miracle Gro.

I’ve put a couple of little zinnias in the chard bed. There’s only really room for one, but I figure there’s not much left of their growing season anyway.

I took a day off to try and catch up on the gardening that I keep missing due to the weather. It worked well – I got about 6 hours in, plus a quick trip to the garden centre to pick up some little zinnias to fill the holes I made.

Mum came down and cut the grass, and gave the compost heap a bit of a turn over before adding the grass cuttings. There doesn’t seem to be any animal nest inside it and I’ve put a temporary bit of fencing inside the front gate, so hopefully that will stop the occasional digging that happens.

I’ve taken all the tomatoes out now and cut them up into the rubbish. I’ll fill the holes with some yellow zinnias, but the marigolds are really big and beautiful. I must remember to grow enough to count as standard bedding next year too. They clearly like the conditions I can give them.

 

The next two cucumbers have evidently suffered in the weird weather. They’re by no means as beautiful as the first two. Hopefully future ones will be back to normal though.

I harvested the first head of broccoli. Only one plant has a central head at the moment and it already has little side stalks coming along.

These are the biggest sunflowers I’ve ever grown – and they’re volunteers. The tallest was doing very well at remaining upright until today, so now it has a stake, which it will probably overpower in two seconds.

I tested the sweetcorn with the brownest tassel, but it was very pale and not ready to eat yet.

I reckon I’ll end up with 3 uchiki kuri and about 3 pumpkins. Someone had attacked this one and it fell off the vine.

I’ve finally cleared the radish out of the bed. I need to do a little more weeding and then more of my garden centre flowers can go in here to brighten things up. The chard is still producing and the one that had been chopped right down is about ready for harvesting again.

I filled two buckets from deadheading the white everlasting pea – and there are still a few bits I couldn’t reach. It needs standing up, but I’m not sure that will particularly work – unless it feels like cooperating with my one remaining cane.

A good harvest today 🙂

I thought it would be a good idea to check on the runner beans again, but happily they were still pretty vertical. Still looking rather poorly though.

The tomatoes are completely done for though and will be coming out soon. I picked a blushed blighted tomato and a couple of clear-looking tomatoes to take home and ripen in two bags, just to see if there’s anything to save. Pretty sure that won’t work though.

On the way out of the plot we suddenly noticed these new gladioli. These didn’t flower last year, and then we noticed some more in the beds. They’re all falling over as everything is this year, but it looks like I’ll get some new splashes of colour.

We had some mad rain earlier in the day, but I hadn’t really noticed how breezy it had been. So I perhaps should have expected the runner beans to be bent over again. The wind and weight of the frame had pulled the guy rope stakes through the wet ground. I’ve hammered everything back in and tried to stuff the enlarged holes with more canes.

The plants don’t look to happy, some dead leaves and a lot of droopy yellow ones. The cucumber leaves were yellow too, which I’m taking simply as all the rain having washed away all the nutrients. So I fed everything with tomato food, hoping that they’ll cheer up.

A couple of Jack Be Littles have now appeared, with more female flowers on the way.

Some more compost had been dragged out, so I took the front off the heap and scraped up what I could. At the moment I can’t see an obvious way in to the centre, so I’m hoping that there isn’t a nest in there, it’s just idle mess-making. I want to attach some of the fencing to the back of the pallet so there’s no longer an easy way in though.

I thought the gladioli were all going to be blind again, but I’ve noticed a couple of flower stems by the apple tree. I’ll have to keep an eye out for others around the place.