We’ve had a good bit of heavy rain recently, which meant that even though not all my buckets were out, I still gathered 6 litres of water (and a lot of dead craneflies). The right-hand water butt was full, so no decanting could be done!

I cut down all the finished sunflower heads. JBM’s hamsters should enjoy the seeds. I picked a few French beans and then pulled up the plants.

I had added the last two gourds from last year, which had finally started deteriorating, to the  compost heap. On top went the bean plants and all the cornflower stalks.

I’ve lifted nearly all the borage roots and lots of weeds, but there are all kinds of flowering pockets in Bed 1 I can’t quite bring myself to dig out: malope, snapdragons, a random yellow wildflower, calendula, clary, calendula …

I cut some grass back from the fence on the front edge. There’s also a clump of lemon balm at the front I’d like to get rid of, but I’m not sure how easily I’ll be able to.

I picked a couple of good red Ferline tomatoes and a few Red Alerts. With the weather having turned a little, I’m not sure if all the nice green ones remaining will be able to ripen in time.

Mr B turned up while I was cutting the grass and brought with him unforecast rain, so I sat in the shed and took my harvest photo there before deciding to pack up and go home.

I did a fair amount of clearing today. Most of the sweet peas on the ledge have gone, along with lots of other finished plants and some weeds.

I’ve taken up cerinthe plants, cut down more borage, pulled up poppies and cut all the cornflowers down in the front bed. There are still sweet sunflowers and flax flowering there, but digging can begin.

I’ve moved the orange yarrow from the corners of the middle bed to Bed 3. Hopefully, they’ll settle in before I then cut them back for autumn. They’re smaller plants than the ones already in Bed 3, perhaps because they’ve had more competition in the other bed?

I collected a lot of seed today: cornflower, corn cockle, flax, malope and morning glory. I’ve also discovered how the marigolds form their seeds, so I’ll be letting some of my French marigolds go to seed at some point in order to get their seed. You get a lot per flower.

Lots more deadheading has been added to the compost. I opened the front to have a look at it. It’s all quite dry. I took those gourds out and smashed them up. Looks like the gourds I’ve added to the pile have probably formed a nice rock layer.

I dug up the volunteer verbenas and planted them in the left boundary and watered them in. Everything’s very dry at the moment. All my previous transplants look rather sorry for themselves.

A year and two days after I last found a lizard in my bucket … I found a lizard in my bucket. He was fairly lethargic, but disappeared after I put him on the ledge, so with any luck will survive.

One apple was a test pick and then I found the other on the ground later in the day. They’re not bad, but a little bit sharp still.

I thought I was going to have lots of tomatoes to harvest, but they’re still ripening and growing. Some of the Ferlines are getting quite big. There were lots of French beans though, and a good amount of chard.

The cosmos are still going well and made a good bunch of flowers. The snapdragons aren’t very big, but have managed to give me some flowers. More next year, I hope.

This morning we picked up the first round of compost for the autumn work. As I start to clear, I want to be able to mark where I’ve done.

I did the usual deadheading and also dug up the cow parsley and pulled up a couple of finished nicotiana and a bit of cornflower. The biggest clear up was the two runner bean wigwams. The beans weren’t going to big enough to eat any time soon, so it was better to just clear up.

I edged all the way around Beds 1 and 2, and a bit of 3, and pulled up whatever weeds came to hand. I’m hoping to rediscover the wooden edging in time for putting it all to bed, with everything coming done at the same time.

Mum cut the grass for me and picked some tomatoes.

My French marigolds are so glorious. I’m very glad I bought those seeds to get my favourite kind of marigold. I did half a bag of weeding around the place, plus some deadheading. The cosmos aren’t going to stop any time soon.

There are some reasonable apples ripening on the ridiculous apple tree, but a mouldy one was the first harvest, taking its twin with it.

I found some brown seeds on the ground, which turned out to be from the nearby bear’s breeches. One or two seeds are inside the big pods. Later on, I was sat on the grass for a rest and got hit by one of the seeds firing from the plants.

One ripe Ferline tomato and two green ones from the broken branch/sideshoot.

I dug up half a sack of weeds today. I figure that it’ll make a big dig easier if I can get rid of most of the weeds first. I’m in the halfway house of starting to clear, but not really being able to dig up much completely. Even things like the borage are sometimes just being cut back rather than removed, because I don’t want the bees to be without the flowers.

I had a reasonable harvest, including the green tomatoes from the broken Ferline branches. I cut the first chard leaves. They might be a bit old, but the plants have finally started growing properly, so there are younger leaves to come.

More work on the left border. I dug up lots more mint. An awful lot was in among other plants, as was an amount of verbena, both dead and alive. So I had to dig up everything and then extricate what I didn’t want. I piled up the good plants and then once I was exhausted from all that, had to replant them. I scattered some Miracle Gro and then watered everything in.