I’ve dug over Bed 6 now and my fork hit something very solid at one end. I tried a different angle and up came the rotten end of one of the log poles which had previously broken off. It was originally set by JBM, which explains why this last bit was so deep. It made a bit of a gloopy noise when it came up, but I couldn’t see water in the hole, so clearly the water isn’t too high just yet.

I’ve now edged the middle bed, where the grass and clover had completely grown over the wood and onto the bed. The final plants have now been moved too. Just a Californian poppy, a cornflower, a few cerinthe. They’ve mostly gone into the front bed.

I looked at this insane apple tree and it’s put on goodness knows how much branch length and is busy growing new ones, pointing in towards the trunk, which are certainly going to the wrong way. I think I’ll get some proper help / delegation next year when it comes to pruning time as it apparently doesn’t like listening to me.

There wasn’t much weeding to on the left border, just some bits of grass to pull up. It’s all now mulched and I’ve cast poppy seeds and cornflower up towards the top around the emptier parts.  I’m rather looking forward to raising loads of morning glory plants for all the border fences next year.

After lunch I did more mulching, finishing the front and doing all down the right-hand side. I also filled in one of the big rodent holes by the trellis, with the hope that the everlasting pea hoops will stay standing.

I now have 3 bags of compost left, so I’ll edge and weed all the beds before we come to divvy up the final compost. It was good and dark when I packed up – moon high in the sky on one side, sunset fading away on the other. The robin was singing loudly when I went through the gate.

After yesterday’s great start on Bed 1, I edged it and turned it over again to discover all the stuff we’d missed – definitely worth the effort. Mum composted Bed 4, finished the weeding on Bed 1 and then we composted Bed 1 and covered both beds. An unexpectedly large leap forward in progress. Now I’m starting to wonder what I’ll do with my weekends when this is all done.

In the morning I finished edging the cosmos bed and then weeded it by hand. That’s now ready to be composted and covered.

I also finished weeding the front bed from the calendulas and around the pear tree. I moved some trowelfuls of plants from Bed 1 into the space I made and so now that’s all done.

In the afternoon Suzy came and helped me dig over Bed 1. We got most of it done before we couldn’t really see what we were doing any more. I’ll have to take photos tomorrow. All the greenery is just being flung now, but for some Californian poppies and calendulas that I’ve brought home in case they’re wanted.

A quick visit before the rain came: I got Bed 3 edged and weeded. The bed is oddly successful with just a few holes, which I have now filled with some transplants from Bed 1 – mostly clumps of calendula and flax. I’m interested to see if the flax makes it through the winter, or whether it can only survive a mild frost.

Somehow it took about an hour and a half to edge and clear this bed, dig it over, smooth it out … then dig out two bucketfuls of earth and put them into holes over by the trellis bed. I also raked up all the apple tree leaves and added them to the compost heap.

After lunch, I dug and edged Bed 5. Mum came down and helped me cover the final piece of Bed 11, compost and cover Bed 10 and compost and cover Bed 5. Not a bad bit of progress.

I’ve also taken up all the little beetroot and put them on the compost – they were never going to achieve anything.

I got some delightfully drug-like coir bricks for my birthday. They’ll be a good thing to try for my seedlings in the spring. I’ll see whether I use it neat, or mix it with compost.

JBM and I went to the allotment for some work, pottering and talking. He dismantled the tomato frame and cleaned off the obelisk for me – and rescued me when I got stuck in the branches of the apple tree.

These carrots look better than they are. Turn them over and you’d see that most of them are completely split. Bit of a weird year for veg that’s usually easy.

I’ve moved the nicotiana to the triangle and the back bed is now empty, dug and covered with compost.

I continued to move plants and fill holes in the afternoon. I’ve done almost all of the weeding in the boundaries now, very little left to do. There will be a little more perennial filling, but I’m almost at the point where anything left in the middle beds is just compost/rubbish. I’ve taken some cornflowers from Bed 1, but although the bed is smothered in self-sown plants, they’re not really salvageable as there are so many weeds mixed in with them too.

I can’t believe how the Californian poppies have flourished – and turned out to be quite hardy. I even got to pull off a flower cap for my birthday. More gardening tomorrow.

Just lots and lots of weeding today. I managed to get more grass and rubbish out from behind the trellis. In some places there’s quite a big gap there and perhaps a layer of gravel or something might be helpful to keep it clearer. The bramble has also been taken back a bit on both sides, so maybe my plants will do better next year.

I did from halfway along the trellis to just beyond the triangle, so if I’ve made a hole big enough in there, a nicotiana can move. Otherwise it’ll be lots of trowelfuls of snapdragons and cornflower filling the new holes.

The chard is still holding on, though a couple have bolted a bit. Otherwise there are just some small beetroot and a bunch of slightly oddly shaped carrots to go.

Frost had hit the finished off various plants when I got to the plot: zinnias, cosmos, marigolds and nasturtiums. The nicotiana were still fine though and even had a flower. The calendulas, geums, poppies, flax and Californian poppies are all still thriving.

I pulled up all the veg in the second bed; this was the only thing worth keeping. The rest went on the compost heap.

I pulled up all the frosted nasturtiums and put did a little more weeding by the trellis, but I still haven’t done the remaining big weeding job. I’ve moved one nicotiana and a calendula into that bed.

The weeded part of the front bed has now been filled in more. I’ve put in Californian poppies, a couple of lupins, a verbena and a calendula. I’m gradually managing to rehouse the perennials, but tomorrow I really must do more weeding to make room.

Mum and I covered the dahlia bed and then composted and covered the back bed up to the remaining perennials.

Then we moved on to making over the front bed. I was given a bunch of roots for some tall yellow flowers I’ve admired from afar in another garden – thought to be a Helianthus. Chances are that in a few years I might regret putting them in, but we’ll see. All the lemon balm (and weeds) from the gate along to past the everlasting pea has now been dug up! I’ve left the gladioli, but if they’re blind again next year, they might have to come out.

In the holes around helianthus clumps, I’ve transplanted clumps of calendulas, cornflowers, poppies and what I think might turn into viper’s bugloss – all taken from across the path in Bed 1. There are some nasturtiums still in there too, which might have time to seed down before the frost if they’re really lucky.

The only thing left to do on the left boundary is to move the two little verbenas from the veg bed to over by the orange calendula and then sprinkle a bit of compost as mulch.