I was in Gmunden over the bank holiday so I’ve taken the rest of the week off to recover and catch up in the garden. The irises had opened in my absence. I thought they weren’t going to turn up. They’re rather lovely, so I’d like to add some more in the next round of bulbs. One lupin in particular is looking good. The others are much smaller, having been sat on a bit by other plants and weeds. But I’m going to be thoroughly feeding my borders this week. Not least because it hasn’t rained for a long time.

I’ve planted out the four Jack Be Littles at either end of the sweetcorn bed. They’re meant to now climb upwards and I’ll string supports as they go.

Four tomato plants have been put out so far. They’re flowering wildly, so hopefully the bees will find them now. I’ve given them a general feed along the with the beautiful homegrown marigolds alongside them.

The onions have fattened up considerably in the past week. The two that failed haven’t made any progress.

Mr B offered me extra straw that I didn’t need while I was straying down Bed 1, but was able to sell me on a pot full of Bulgarian Giant leeks. Mine are much smaller and were on the verge of being abandoned, so I’ll see how these do once I eventually finish emptying Bed 7. Mine were sown in April and these were sown a month earlier, so perhaps all I needed to do was give them more of a head start.

I found a dead fledgling blue tit on the grass. I put it outside the fence with the hope that something will find it tonight.

I’ve sown the extra rows of beetroot and carrot in Bed 10, and a split half row in Bed 2. The runner beans have had a general feed.

The cucumbers are a mix of dead and pathetic. The broken bits clearly aren’t going to mend. The two small seedlings now have little true leaves. I’ve given everything a weak feed and also put new seeds into every existing point, plus two.

Plum Corner isn’t exactly under control, but it is at least looking quite pretty with lupins, gladioli and geum. There’s grass growing through perennials all over the place, so for now it’s just a case of keep plucking it out.

The transplanted cornflowers and poppies have taken really well. There was briefly a bright pink poppy before the wind blew its petals off. I’m looking forward to them seeding down and getting settled in these beds.

 

I’ve added marigolds to the runner beans and marigolds. They need pinching out, but most of them have a flower bud, so I’m letting them do that first.

I’ve also planted out the two little cucumber seedlings I had at home. They’re still only on their seed leaves, but everything is breaking so easily, I figure I might as well get them settled now.

I’ve made the first level of support for the cucumbers and Jack Be Littles. I’m going to let the plants indicate what they might need before I get too far into winding string here there and everywhere.

The garlic is doing well, as are the onions. The tops that got eaten haven’t grown back, so I have a small space in my onion row, because of course they were next to each other.

I  weeded Bed 2 and watered the chard. I also watered the other active beds as we’ve gone from endless rain to no rain in sight.

I mowed all around but couldn’t do much on 1. The grass is possibly to damp in itself still. But the 2 and edging has made it all look very smart and I’m hopeful that this means it won’t be too long when I return after next weekend.

I made a start on digging over the section of grass and mint. Lots more yet to clear there, but it’s nice to have made a dent.

A lovely sunny day with lots to be done. Unable to find the 16th long cane, we rearranged the second wigwam a little to make it 7. Two canes have been added to the cucumbers to up my chances of getting any cucumbers to survive. It was breezy today and another plant broke before I even got them in the ground. I’ve bound that and the original broken one with washi tape, which seems to be quite a good option. I’m not sure how well the plants will do though. I already have two seedlings coming along and I need to sow more.

The tomato fence is up, ready for the tomatoes, which will go out next week after Gmunden. As well as a few volunteer tomatoes among the garlic, there’s also a volunteer chard in the onion – which at least makes sense as that’s where it was last year.

I’ve put a couple of bags of compost on the clear part of Bed 7. I’ll add at least one more once the cornflowers are gone as they’re taking a lot of soil with them.

The poles have been strung up for Jack Be Littles, I just need to weave a bit of netting support for them. The cucumber wigwam needs the same addition.

In the afternoon the beans went in. One is just a seed, which was sown a week ago. One plant has lost its top, so if it doesn’t grow new shoots, there’s a second seed already soon to replace it.

I finally cleared up my slabs, which have been annoying me for weeks every time I went in and out.

I’ve also propped up the everlasting peas that were lying all over the ledge and getting attacked by bindweed. Underneath the apple tree is cleared up and the brambles and nettles that were at the trellis boundary have also been cut back. Lots of good jobs jobbed.

Here come the lupins! I did a post-work visit to make a start on the strimming. More than half is done and it looks really good – it’ll certainly be a welcome sight when I go down tomorrow. Lots to do this weekend, with the first planting out.

About the lushest plant in the plot at the moment is the volunteer potato in the compost heap.

The carrots look good as usual. I need to pay attention to the beetroot. There’s been some rain and so I’ve been ignoring them, but I need to see if I can actually get some good beets this year.

Mum and I have put up three wigwams – two at the back for runner beans and one in Bed 5 for the cucumbers. I need to put some string guides around that one for the cucumbers to hold on to.

All the beds are open now and I’ve put a bag of compost on Bed 6 and done half of Bed 11. It needs another, but the right hand wigwam needs to be re-spaced and tied beforehand.

We had to pause for a bit while doing the wigwams as I was sure I saw a bird going into the nestbox, but we didn’t see it re-emerge, so it may just have been a trick of angles.

I did a mow, down to 2. I managed to do a 1 at the gate and by the shed. I can’t wait to be able to do that all over. The edges are clearly going to be the price I pay for the edges, but they’ll get strimmed before long.

I had to spray the first blackfly of the year on some cornflowers. I hope they can get established before the bugs take over. The bee house continues to fill up and one has used the hole that got pecked away – I’m now more inclined to think that it was a woodpecker trying its luck.

I started the day with potting on the marigolds. They and everything else have also had a seaweed feed. It’s a bit colder tonight, so the marigolds will go back indoors, but everything else in the grow house is continuing with its hardening off. The beans are now long enough that they need two shelves. Two runner beans hadn’t germinated, so I’ve resown those. I’ve also sown two more cucumber seeds. I have three strong plants. The fourth stronger one had gone a bit wrong and then I snapped it this morning just to seal the deal.

All the tulips are done now. Some forget me not is opening and the nigella are coming. I’d wondered where I was going to put the zinnias that I pinched out in the morning (and the nasturtiums) but I realise now that there will be some space here.

Lots more bee holes have been filled. I never imagined that this would work straight away, seeing as the birds studiously ignore the nest boxes I provided. The robin settled for something inside Mr H’s shed.

The ledge is waking up and I need to get the everlasting peas corralled. The vetch and bindweed has suddenly taken off too, so I did half a bucket of weeding before anything else.

I’ve cleared the patch between the lupin and big geum and put more cornflowers in. The mint-ridden patch on the other side is the next project. The big corn cockle clump needs to go there before I run out of places.

First and last record of the tomatoes. With all my diary-keeping here, I so rarely take photos of seedlings indoors. The tomatoes are too leggy and weak, so today I kicked them out and used the compost for potting on the sweetcorn in the big green trays. I’ve brought them inside to warm them up a bit, hoping that they’ll take off a bit. In previous years they were much taller at this point.

I deadheaded some bulbs and pulled up what grass I could here and there. Where it’s growing through things like the mint, I’m just having to pull up / snap off what I can.

Plum Corner has remained mostly weed-free, but the lemon balm has taken over a bit. I’ve decided to leave it for now, as I don’t want to damage other perennials. I’ll work on allowing for them to overpower the lemon balm, rather than vice versa. To the right, I’m putting in any other bits of verbena I find. For the most part, the verbena around the plot seems to have died away.

The carrots, beetroot and chard are coming up ok. I’m still waiting to see if the nipped onions will make a comeback.

Starting at the shed end, I began to clear the couch grass from the border bed. The soil has dried out an amount, but there was still an amount staying stuck on the roots I was throwing away. I moved cornflowers and poppies from Bed 7 and planted them around the physostegia and geum. There was one little leggy stem of cerinthe, which I’ve put in the second pot. Hopefully it’ll seed down from there and grow as beautifully as all the volunteers at home do.

I added more cornflowers and poppies on the other side of the physostegia, by the lupin. I had a few larkspur seeds in my bag, so I’ve sprinkled them. I have more clearing to do on the other side of the lupin and further up towards the gate. There are lots of cornflowers left and I’ve realised that the different-looking clump is corn cockle.

The robin visited while I was working and I had to yell at a rook for stealing mouthfuls of compost from Bed 1.

In the morning I noticed that something had bitten a lump out of the bug hotel wood. The muddy marks on bin below are unclear, but I assume it’s the rat, back to sharpen its teeth, rather than a low-flying woodpecker. In the afternoon though, suddenly some holes were plugged and bees were buzzing all around.