On a trip to Wyevale to get more white mustard seed, I did some more stone research. It looks like I’ll be using Scottish cobbles and pebbles from Brookside and there’s a nice bag of quartzite pea 20mm stones at Wyevale that could be useful for filling in non-tessellating holes.

I did more digging in two shifts today and all but cleared the corner. The big clump of grass in the far corner had grown across the chicken wire, but I managed to pull most of it out. That’s how so many clumps of grass have become entrenched further down the boundary. I don’t foresee being able to remove all those though.

The nursery has grown to include verbenas and lupins. I’ve only kept the best clumps of verbena and hope to make the verbena parts of the bed somewhat denser for a bit of coverage. The lupins may or may not survive as they have tap roots. If they do, I’ll find space for them in other boundaries.

I’ve made a start on clearing the corner and it’s coming up surprisingly easily. It’s pretty dry soil, but hasn’t turned into concrete. Clearly a challenging piece of ground to cultivate anyway. I’ve started a nursery for the plants that I’m saving for possible moving. My salvias and foxgloves aren’t in the best shape, but maybe I can bring them back to life in better soil.

The helianthus often gets in the way of my panorama photos, so I combined a helpful trim with adding some stalks to my posy. I need to find out if it would benefit from deadheading at all.

Measuring up for plotting and planning. The bug hotel is going to be renovated to hold a deeper plant holder on the right hand side … and Plum Corner is going to become Pond Corner.

More clearing up. I cut up lots of the everlasting pea on the back fence and added it to the compost heap. I also pulled up tomatoes, which were split between the compost and rubbish as there were some signs of blight. I’ve probably filled my compost with plenty of tomato seed for future volunteers.

I picked the last cucumber and took down the wigwam. I also cut the last gourds of all sizes. With Bed 1 empty but for a few weeds, I raked up all the straw and added it to the compost too. I’ve left an amount of the small bits to add to the organic material in the bed.

The mustard is coming up well where it’s been sown. I need to get the weeds out of Bed 1 and get that sown too.