I spent all morning doing a crammed bucket of deadheading, with the occasional weed pull as I went.

In the afternoon I finished off the strimming. It had grown really thick, just like the grass, so in places I was strimming the path down too. Hopefully the coming hot weather will dry out the grass and I’ll be able to do a mow on 1 soon. Might have a be 2 then a 1 if I’m unlucky.

I’ve swapped the piece of wood at the front of pond for a big cobble. The birds were constantly tipping it into the water, so I’ve conceded the battle. If they still manage to move the big stone, I’m hopeful it will just drop to the marginal shelf. A red dragonfly came to visit and settled on the poppy seed heads. The damselfly larvae are easy to find in the water and I also saw my first diving beetle in a while, which was pleasing.

Taking a picture of the pond is a bit of a trick now, as the weedy little cerinthe I planted in the corner of Bed 1 where I stand have magically turned into good plants.

I weeded Bed 4 and planted all the cosmos. It turned out that I hadn’t pinched three of them. Two were leggy, so I’ve cut them down. The third is a bit bushier and has a second stem, so I’ll let it flower first.

I had some battery left from the mowing, so I used that up to make a start on the strimming.

The harvest was good, with a great, straight cucumber. I found two pears on the ground, half-eaten, so I thought I’d better pick few to see how they’re coming. Apparently you pick them unripe anyway. The tree has pretty much cleared of scab this year, so I don’t want the crows stealing all my fruit.

I knew I needed to mow, but was still surprised to see how much the clover had grown. A mow on 3 was the only option, followed by a mow on 2. The clover was really wet.

A mid-week harvest. I’ve pulled up all the onions, to make room for the cosmos. I harvested the first mad carrot and picked some zinnias for home. The outdoor zinnias are healthy, but haven’t done a great deal of growing.

I should have been down during the week as the clover was very high and there were lots of beans to pick. I did a mow on 3 and then I hope to strim and mow again, but there’s so much clover that it’ll probably be 2 then 1.

I can see the damselfly larvae in the pond and they’re bigger than before. There’s not too much more blanket weed.

Crows had been at the sweetcorn, so I had to pull up some damaged/eaten cobs and foliage. When I went to throw it on the compost heap, I found that the unknown cucurbit there had really taken off. I trimmed the leaves back a bit to keep a bit of access to the compost heap. I then had to trim back all the nettles that were coming through the fence. To make a bit more space I’ve emptied half a bag of leaves into the black bin and the other half onto the compost.

There’s a lizard living in the wooden leaf bin and he was basking on top of the bin before I scared him off.

I did lots of deadheading and weeding. I’ve now cleared the alliums out of the front bed and weeded all around the callicarpa. It’s looking a bit better and I think it’s benefitted from the feed I’ve given it. More weeding is needed around the salvias and helianthus. I’m still not sure what to do with this bed.

The alliums are now stored in a paper bag, and I’ve also saved the seed from some dark blue nigella in Bed 3.

Some of the small dry onions had been disturbed by something, so I pulled up all the dry ones. A few were no good, but overall they weren’t bad. I’ll get the larger ones with green leaves next time – and then the nigella at home needs to be put in! Also harvested: the first tomatoes.

9 litres of rainwater collected in the last week! The pond had a lot of bindweed in it, so I made a good effort at clearing it out, including the more established bit at the back of the pond. I carefully checked the weed and found several damselfly larvae to return to the water. I later discovered a number in the shallow waters of the bird bowl too. The pond looks much better now, so maybe it’ll start to find its balance again soon.

I weeded Bed 11 at last and got all the big weeds out. There are some good-sized gourds coming and it won’t be long before the first sweetcorn can be picked. A cucumber is also on its way, but a bit small at the moment.

Mum and I cleared all the nigella and weeds out of the fern bed, so it looks better now. I cut some dead foliage off the two suffering ferns and saw signs of some new growth, so maybe they’ll fight back.

I’ve given all the tomatoes a good foliage trim to increase air flow. The Romas are much denser than the Red Alerts, which needed little work.

I magically remembered to gather the pale pink poppy seed, so that dead plant is now out of the parsnip bed. I was dead on my feet, so the whole thing just got thrown onto the compost heap as is.

I’d gathered 7 litres of rainwater in my buckets, which was wonderful! That’s gone into the butts, along with whatever came via the gutters. The chaenorhinum along the front of the pond is doing quite nicely and I’m pretty sure there’s an antirrhinum at the bird bowl end. Unless it’s all antirrhinum?!

I did two buckets of weeding from all over, but concentrating on the the front bed. That’s finished for now. I’m leaving the allium to be a splash of colour. I’m not sure where they will end up with bed renovation; maybe moved somewhere where I don’t need to disturb the soil.

The pears look good on the tree, only a few seem to have scab so far.

Happily, with cutting the right hand everlasting pea back an amount I discovered one of the bear’s breeches in flower under all the mess. That’s now been revealed and given more space.

The deadheading will have to wait for now as the weeding did me in. All the transplants from last week are still alive, so there’s a chance of continued colour. I wonder if the anise hyssop in Bed 6 and in small pots at home would be of any use in the gap on the left and in the front bed.

The runner beans have kicked off properly now. Time to carefully scan the wigwam up, down and inside each time.

I have quite a lot of gourds in Bed 11 and with all the rain one of them in particular had taken off left and was trying to climb my mini sweetcorn. I have a few cucumbers coming now and there’s also the unknown cucurbit on the compost heap, which is going great guns. All the time it’s not impeding access, I’ll let it grow to find out what it is.

There’s lots of rain coming tonight, so I didn’t bother taking any bottles to the plot when I went to do the mowing (2 then 1 because of the damp clover). I made sure all my buckets are out and also put the downpipe back together on the left butt. I don’t know why it likes to come apart like that.

The big sunflower has opened its first flower and is streaked with red. It makes me wonder if it’s actually a Hallo.

I saw the field vole again, as it jumped out from between the two big pieces of bark under the apple tree. It then ran along the bramble undergrowth. There are lots of blackberries coming – a bit early really.

Another runner bean was ready to pick and there are lots of flowers on the vines.

I managed to feed everything while it was cloudy. I gave some more to the callicarpa and some other perennials to help them out.

Having seen the rain coming in past my window panes while sheltering in the shed recently, I bought some silicon and managed to remember to do the job today. I’ve put a line across the bottom and down the middle brace. I couldn’t smooth the line behind the water butt so well, but it looks neat enough.

I’ve found a tunnel dug out from the woodland bed up onto Mr B’s path. Hedgehog maybe? The vole is tiny and has already made an enormous network of tunnels, so it can’t be that.

I pulled up lots of spent borage and cut back those that still had obvious flower buds to come. I put some cosmos and rudbeckia I’d been raising at home in the gaps. These aren’t the big cosmos; I’m saving those for when the onions come up.

I’ve put the anise hyssop into the end of Bed 6. The soil was dry and powdery and no doubt needs some more organic material in it. I probably need to get some of my leaf mould spread as mulch before covering the bed in the winter.

There was pond excitement as I was leaving: a damselfly laying her eggs in the hornwort. She stayed for ages and came back in the afternoon too. I also noticed that the poor loosestrife that dried up both have lots of new growth coming at the bottom.

The sweetcorn now has cobs on it, but the plants are so small that I knelt down to take this photo.

The teasel is now flowering. It does so in rings, so won’t ever be a full head of pink flowers.

The apple tree will get a bigger haircut in the winter. I had to unscramble a couple of branches that were weighing each other down to the ground.

An evening visit, still hot though! The pond is a bit busy with blanket weed at the moment, especially as it’s warm. Hopefully it’ll settle in a while. I’ve not seen my diving beetles for a little while, so I hope they’re safe.

The Merlin app caught a new bird: a swallow.

I did lots of deadheading and made a start on cutting down the borage. I’ll need to glove up properly to pull them up. I gathered the first seeds from Bed 1: cornflower and corn marigold. The candytuft has gone over now, so I’ll leave most of that to collect seed. The calendula is still going, but I’ll save that seed too.

I’d been missing the shield bugs, but there are plenty around now, so maybe I was just looking too early.

I pulled all the nigella out of the fern bed. I’d forgotten that I have heucheras in that bed too, so it’s good to give them some space. I’m aiming for foxgloves next year, not nigella and corn cockles. The foliage has disappeared from the bluebell pots, so I might just need to take them out of the pots and plant them and hope for the best.

One of my bags of leaves was falling apart, so I emptied it across the two bins. The top was very dry, but underneath was quite wet. The dry ones in the bin are really crunchy and I feel like I need to put a food mixer in there or something to crumble them up.

Today’s harvest had the first runner beans and carrots. I also picked some small flowers for home, plus one of the Soleil sunflowers.