New life spotted: it looks like I have a new cucumber up. Though I didn’t actually lift the lid to see if it was a borage instead. And in the pond a bit of weed clearing brought up a bunch of wildlife. I now have to be careful when netting. There were lots of water lice in the net, along with other unknowns.

The last day of my week’s holiday was marked by a flyover from 3 DC-3 Dakotas – a few times in fact.

I had finally managed to germinate some cucumber seeds with a second round in the airing cupboard. So I’ve put those in at the 3 empty canes, plus the last one between two canes as backup.

I’ve fed my struggling perovskias. Both plants were beautiful last year when I bought them. Where have they gone?

Doing the first round of deadheading and some weeding, I discovered that some interesting seeds are coming up at the back of the beds, so maybe late summer will be a little better than usual?

I now have at least two big beetles in the pond. While one came up to see me, there was at least one other further away.

I’ve planted the remaining crappy nasturtiums into Bed 6 to help fill it up. 3 zinnias have gone into Bed 7. I’ve potted on the 4 smaller ones for later pinching and hopefully colour that could be used in a late summer hole.

All the calendula has gone into Bed 1, with one by the shed and one in the triangle. They too need to buck up.

I discovered that the mad clover that I’d seen before had spread into about a 3 foot circle. So I’ve pulled it all up from the grass and cut through its roots, before covering the patch with grass need.

I’ve put all the lobelia into Bed 9. Just as well I put them in a slightly bigger tray at home; they never would have survived otherwise and they’re noticeably larger. I fed Bed 9 with half-power feed (1 cap per 4 litres) and gave some to the sunflowers too. The tomatoes and cosmos got full strength feed.

I deadheaded the pond irises and cleared the pond, though there wasn’t all that much weed to gather. The forget me nots have their first flower buds.

I added a bunch of corn cockles around the sunflower and borage in Bed 7. They might help each other stand up. The courgette had been pulled out and was dead. Although I have a spare at home, I think I’ll just fill this space with the zinnias.

The marigolds that I grew at home have gone in near the cucumber (and site of possible other cucumbers!) and a few more in Bed 1 too.

There’s not much more to do in my big week off now. Beds 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 are all done. Bed 1 needs calendula, Bed 6 needs more nasturtiums, Bed 7 needs zinnias and some more cucumbers if they can play ball. If I magically have time, I do still want to dig under the beach of the pond and make it a gentler slope.