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.

I managed to get this much cleared this morning, a lot of it in the pouring rain. I only went home once I was soaked to the skin. I’m rediscovering the perennials I’ve put in, getting rid of weeds, paring down the amount of nasturtium and purple loosestrife and filling in the animal holes that appeared over the summer.

I dug up a lot of anemone bulbs. They annoy me each year and I’ve not yet decided what to do with them. They all might go back into a boundary in a clump if there’s a space, but they might go on the compost. I also found a little foxglove among the weeds, which will be put back somewhere.

After a bunch of rain that made me move my day off, today was finally dry enough (for the hardy in their macs) to do some clearing. Happily, the soil had dried out enough to make weeds easy to pull and shake off.

Bed 3 needs some tidying attention but is really working hard on filling itself with coreopsis, cornflower, flax and calendula around the yarrow plants.

Suzy and I cleared a bunch of big weeds and some finished zinnias from the middle bed before moving on to the dahlia bed. That’s now been weeded, edged and covered in compost. We also took a whole bucket of soil from it and added it to the annoying dip in the main path.

We cleared the back bed but for a couple of cerinthe seedlings, a lupin, a couple of nicotiana (half cut down to see if they’ll go through the winter) and a zinnia that’s not given up yet.

Bed 1 is going to need a quick turn to get rid of the seedlings on what I’d already done, but I can see that at least some of those are cornflower, so I will probably move some of those self-seeds.

Blight had arrived when I got to the plot, so I picked all the green tomatoes (and a few slightly red ones) and pulled up all the tomato plants.

I also picked the remaining few apples. No doubt there will be a bigger harvest to deal with next year.

After disturbing the back bed, I moved the snapdragons to the ledge and the left boundary. There were a few seed heads full of marigold seeds, which I’ve buried in the ledge to see if they want to grow next year. The left boundary only has a bit more weeding to be done before it can have a bit of mulch and be called complete.

After lunch, I dug up all the dahlia tubers without spearing a single one. They’ve been taken on by Mr B, who was very pleased to have them. It was a bit like digging up potatoes in that the bed has now been pretty well turned over with very little effort.

Among my moving and tidying, I got rid of the ridiculously leggy verbena by the elm and replaced it with one of the good self-sows from the veg bed. While I was in that corner, I also cleared out a lot of the grass from the fence line.

The trellis bed is a mess and now nasturtiums have popped up to complicate things. I think I’m just going to have to empty it of everything that’s unwanted and start again. In looking for spaces, I discovered that the triangle needs weeding before anything can move into it, so now the priority has shifted to making spaces before any more moving can happen.

Another productive day of moving things around. I’ve put the white delphinium (I think) in the left border and it’s ended up near the little one that got bitten, which is showing signs of life.

So all the delphiniums have been shifted – the light blue one is in Plum Corner. I’ve dug up the white foxgloves from the back bed and put them in the corner too, along with one of the verbenas. A big lupin has gone in by the gate and I’ve put clumps of snapdragons and clary from Bed 1 into the final spaces.

So that’s a pretty impressive transformation of that corner – and I still have a good few perennials to find homes for.

Some of the tomatoes have turned a little less green, but not remotely red. I don’t think they’ll ripen now, so I’ve started to pick them. The vines seem to be dying or something similar. I’d like to try the Ferlines again next year, so maybe I need to start them earlier – and hope for more sunshine.

Having weeded the ledge last week, I have now mulched it and tried to fill in the animal holes. I’ve taken down most of the everlasting pea by the apple, but some of it is so completely on the other side of the fence that I’ll have to leave it.

I dug up the purple and pink delphiniums and moved them to the left boundary, shunting a few things slightly to make room. The cerinthe has started to seed down a little, so that’s good – it’s already in the right place.

I started to weed and make a little space in Plum Corner, but then ended up digging up all the lemon balm and of course piles of grass. I’ve cleared down beyond the triangle and then the next patch in the boundary needs some ordinary weeding. Now I need to decide what to put in the corner with the everlasting pea and the geum. I have delphiniums and foxgloves that need moving.

I edge the back bed, which was particularly overgrown. I also had to reset a couple of edging pieces, which had wandered out of line. I did some random weeding as I went, and took some weeds up around the plot.

The biggest job was weeding the ledge. It’s quite full, but there are plenty of spaces for other things. I’ve realised that the great salvias can be moved there for example. I got rid of some big weeds and a pile of nettles, and also discovered that Mr B’s bramble had climbed through my apple tree and put down a sucker underneath on the far side!

Another tester apple to try, plus a few tomatoes. I found the abandoned tomatoes where I’d left them in the grass by the shed. Most of them had started going bad, but the biggest one still seems ok, though a bit odd.

Meanwhile, all the ground I’d dug over on Bed 1 has erupted into a sea of little green seedlings.

We’ve now composted Bed 2 and covered it. First bed done. We used new peat-free compost from Westland for the first time. It’s quite fibrous, but good stuff, with no sticks and stones. It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like in the spring. The manure dried into lumps that had to be broken down, so hopefully this won’t do that.

Bed 5 is almost empty now. The big cosmos and the sunflowers have gone, but a couple of zinnias are still going.

I had a lot of deadheading to do, having left it for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if everything will now come up with a new round of flowers, or decide to call it a day as a result.

Just a little harvest, plus some not yet ripe Ferlines where the branch seems to have already died. Except cutting those was an afterthought when finishing up and as a result, I walked off without them. I’ll find out at the weekend whether they’re still on the grass.

The veg didn’t turn out very well this year. I did some harvesting and found that the biggest beetroot was only good on top, and one of the carrots was only half-sized. The bed was full of ants early on, but from what I read they shouldn’t cause problems. However, last year I had a big beetroot in which red ants were certainly busy.

Their presence also indicates dry soil. There was also a very hot, dry period in the summer. Now of course, we’re getting loads of rain and the butts are full!

Lots of digging today: the sections where the runner beans were are now done. More borage has been removed, plus miscellaneous other plants that were done.

I’ve dug up the sunflowers that were completely done. I’ve also done various random bits of weeding in the left boundary. A pesky nettle is gone, several big thistles, etc. I rediscovered the little damaged delphinium. Maybe it will manage something next year. Any minute now I’ll be moving the others in the boundaries too.

I dug over Bed 2 entirely and more than half of Bed 1 is done. I’ve worked around the pretty flowers for now. Partly because there are some in there that need moving and preserving (not just admiring).