WhatsApp pinged as soon as I arrived and while I was reading the message the spitfire came over and did a roll, then a flock of honking geese flew over the shed.

I finally mowed the grass mohawk on 3,   which has helped the look an amount, though of course the edges have already grown. It’s a bit annoying how much time and energy this and deadheading takes, when I’d like to be doing some proper sit down weeding and clearing.

Blight is definitely around, but I’m still harvesting some Romas and one Red Alert. There are a bunch of green Red Alert, so we’ll see if they have time to ripen.

I cleared up the windfalls and continued my slow start on tidying up, pulling up candytufts and spreading their seed in the borders. I’ve taken the runner bean roots out of Bed 7, but there’s lots of weeding yet to do. Bed 11 feels like it could be cleared, but when you look at it you realise how busy the nasturtiums and marigolds still are.

I strimmed the whole plot, which was quite a job as the edges were very thick. It now has its mohawk look, so I need to mow it soon. Early on I heard some incessant bird song, which turned out to be long-tailed tits, though I didn’t see them.

A couple of surprise bulbs have appeared in Bed 3. They’re peacock orchids, which I planted in March 2024, in groups of four across the bed.

I dismantled the runner beans and chopped up the vines for the compost heap. I’ve got a bucket of enormous bean pods to chop up next time. When I was about to take this photo a bird flew in front of me and sat in the sunflowers for a moment before realising I was there and flying off again. I think it was a goldfinch.

There were a few tomatoes to harvest, but I don’t entirely trust that the plants are still good. They might just be on the cusp of blight. I’ve picked the one and only sweetcorn that has any promise, so that bed will be cleared soon.

I took the day off work to make up for a missed weekend. Despite my good work mowing, the grass had shot back up again and needs another go.

The pond is completely clear and all the hornwort has sunk to the bottom. There was the skin of what I think was a damselfly larva floating on the surface.

I did the deadheading and started picking up dead leaves. The runner beans are shedding, so the wigwam needs to come down soon. I tidied up all the apples, splitting them between home and the compost heap.

I harvested all the gourds from Bed 11 and put the vines on the compost heap. That bed will be empty soon and I think I’ll empty and mix the leaf bins. My marigolds are going to be providing colour for a while though, as we have pretty warm weather.

One of the hyssops is flowering and magically all the ones in little pots have magically survived thanks to the rain. I still can’t decide whether to plant them out into a nursery bed, or put them in the front border.

The mole is back and after tidying up my gate slabs in the morning, it had been back over lunchtime to make more mess.

While collecting seed from the candytufts, I spotted garlic coming up in Bed 6. It never occurred to me that they would be back, I thought they’d rotted. I’ll mulch them when the bed is clearer and we’ll see if they make it over the winter.

I weeded the front border and took out some of the creeping helianthus root. I collected cerinthe, corn marigold, candytuft, poppy, Sweet William and cornflower seed, as well as a few sunflower seeds, and cast it around the bed. There are some big cerinthes already growing and as more seed loosens in Bed 1, I’ll see if I can get some more to cast in the front border.

To add to the unexpected vegetables, I also found a random carrot growing in Bed 1.

The cosmos are doing quite nicely, but I’ve not staked them, which means that some limbs are growing along the ground. My annual bad habit of not staking properly / at all.

Just had to get my lovely successful rudbeckia on the record.

Ahead of some more days of rain and scattered showers, I managed to get down to the plot after work to mow. I did a 3 and then 2. The edges need strimming now too. The whole plot has a very autumnal look to it, with fading plants, but still a fair amount of orange and yellow flowers.

A few mole hills are appearing here and there again, in the car park and in the plot. There’s one in Bed 1 now, among the multiple new seedlings and the rudbeckia that have worked this year.

There are loads of seedlings in the front border all of a sudden too. I have no idea what they are – probably nigella. I can see candytuft and cerinthe too. Since I’m still not quite set on what to do here, they can stay for at least a while. It might be that I just fill the area with seed to overwinter, put in some anise hyssop and call it done.

The big red and yellow sunflower had fallen over when I got to the plot. I propped it up three times before it seemed to take. More flowers are coming, so it’s worth trying to save. I cut off some small damaged seed heads and hung them on the old sweet pea strings. I think the little birds should manage to cling on to get the seeds.

It seemed like the season had changed in the plot. Things are dying back and finishing. There are some runner beans left, but they’re very big, so I’m leaving them. One gourd has finished and I’ll be harvesting some of them soon. The teasels have dried out, but I don’t see any sign of seeds yet.

There are now lots of Jack Be Littles because as soon as I trim the plant, it grows another branch. I’ve trimmed it more and there are now fruit growing everywhere. So much for removing the plant if it turned out not to be a pumpkin. There was a chrysalis on one of the leaves I cut off, so I put it on the compost heap.

I did lots of deadheading through the day and cut back more tomato foliage to keep the Roma plants healthy. The trimming also revealed another tomato I’d missed in the morning. A bucket and a half of weeding was done, but I’m still not doing proper weeding among the plants, so nettles are just snapping off when I pull them.

What is clearly an antirrhinum is nearly flowering on the pond ledge. The chaenorhinum seed has somehow turned into antirrhinum.

While going round the beds, I uncovered the top of one of the parsnips and it’s looking a reasonable size. I think most of them needed a bit more thinning, but I’ll probably get a good collection of relatively small roots. Note to self: sow more rows and thin them further apart next time.

I harvested one sweetcorn cob, which turned out to be quite small, so we’ll see how it’s done for development when we cook it. There’s one larger cob left, which I’m hoping the crows will keep ignoring meanwhile.

  

The pond was quite full after all the rain we’ve had.

The compost gourd is definitely a Jack Be Little plant, but they’re fun, so never mind.

I got caught in the rain, probably because I’d taken my raincoat out of my car. It was worth the visit though, because I heard a bird call, which Merlin identified as the red linnet – and looking up I saw a little flock of them fly over me.

I picked tomatoes and one of the Romas was caught in the cage and was a bit tricky to get out.

I did a couple of buckets of weeding and pulled up more borage. It wasn’t a comprehensive job; there are still some bits of weeds that were just cut down rather than dug out, because it was too hot to bother too much. I did get under the apple tree and cut the big hanging branches though.

A few buckets of good stuff went onto the compost heap, including windfalls and all the sweet peas. Again, I just cut those down. There’s still an amount to pull out of the ground, plus the strings to remove.

The red dragonfly was around the pond most of the time. Impossible to photograph when it’s on the poppy seed heads because of all the things behind it.

I fed the beans, cucumbers, Red Alerts, zinnias, cosmos and rudbeckia. The veg and Roma all got watered, along with the anise hyssop, one of which has magically flowered.

I picked a bunch of zinnias, calendula and a small sunflower. They’ve made two pretty vases at home, which gives me the taste for growing more cut flowers.

There was a half-eaten pear in the car park when I turned up, so I picked all the fruit from the tree  to save the rest from the crows. They’re being quite destructive this year and others have put up deterrents to scare them off.

I spent the morning deadheading and harvesting. I’ve started doing a bit of tidying, starting to take down the sweet peas and cut back the gourd vines. I need to do some weeding and dig up the borage. The nasturtiums and marigolds are still providing great colour.

I removed blanket weed from the pond and put back a couple of damselfly larvae. I saw a yellow and dragonfly and a red one, and heard their wings fluttering.

I’m now almost certain that this is a Jack Be Little. I’ve take more off the plant as it’s still growing fast, but I’ve left a couple of fruits.

I cut down more damaged sweetcorn. There were some small pieces of ripe corn, but it wasn’t enough to be safe to eat. There are a couple of cobs that might survive if the crows fail to see them.

I cleared up some windfalls from the grass. When I’ve got the energy I need to get under the tree and pick up more rotten ones, and chop back a couple of brambles coming over the fence.

The big sunflower has lots of flowers. There are going to be so many seeds for the birds all around the plot.

Some late bloomers have arrived: the godetia, big gladioli and the first rudbeckia. The cosmos need some encouragement – I haven’t fed things for a few weeks. The runner beans are about done now; I don’t think feeding them will change anything.

It was too hot to go down in the afternoon and I was knackered after Brighton, falling asleep until nearly 4pm.

At last the Roma have begun to ripen, and there are plenty more Red Alerts to come. A bag went to Annie to help against the glut.

The mystery gourd has grown quickly along the side of the shed and the pruned side seems to have grown back quite a lot too.

There’s another cucumber on the way, and the nasturtiums around it have had a second coming, so look good.

I managed to mow the main path on 1, but had to do the rest on 2.

The gourd on the compost heap was growing in three different directions. I pruned it down the side to give myself some access to the compost heap. It’s possibly a pumpkin, but I think it’s more likely to be a Jack Be Little.

There were lots of tomatoes to harvest. The beans were a bit big and I should have done a mid-week visit really. The birds have been eating the pears, so we picked all the ones that would come off the tree and took them home.