The pond was a bit low when I arrived, but although the bird bowl was a bit disturbed, I couldn’t see any damage. A few bits of new farm rock could be a better defence than pebbles that can be moved so easily.

I uncovered three beds today (and managed to do 2 shifts for the first time in a long time), all of which I turned over with the Wolf tool and raked over. There were a few bits of marestail in Bed 11, but next to nothing in the way of weeds otherwise. Two robins were flying around in a friendly manner and one of which was brave enough to pick around in the same beds I was working on. At last, a friendly robin.

I’ve done a half row each of carrot and beetroot in Bed 2, and two short rows of parsnip at the left end of Bed 11. I haven’t put the tunnel up over Bed 2 (yet?), but covered the parsnip rows with my plastic tiles as before.

I also harvested another very big parsnip from Bed 7. There are still lots left and they seem to be holding up ok.

Bed 5 has a volunteer nasturtium at the edge, which has now been joined by about 16 trailing nasturtium seeds.

The bulbs I thought were tulips really area alliums, which I don’t remember planting, but I must have.

The hawthorn will flower soon and there are one or two little volunteers that I need to pot up for possible future use.

Looking at the left border the physostegia by the veronica really does seem to have gained a big hole in it and is now just a strip across the front of the bed. I might be better of trying to rearrange it into a better lump and filling the hole with something like a lupin.

I’ve resown most of the sweet peas. I killed the ones that had come up; they got fried in the sun. One magically survived and a number hadn’t come up yet. They’ve just been outside all the time now, so we’ll see if they manage to come up slowly.

I’ve also now sown the 8 runner beans in the same root trainer.

I managed to do a mow on 2 pretty easily. A couple of the paths in particular are very full of thatch; I’m not sure if I’ll be able to rake it out myself. A mow on 1 is the next job, if it can be done.

I weeded all of the left border. It was a little damp, but not far off the ideal weeding moisture level. It produced a whole bucket of  grass and weeds. I need to check last year’s photos and see if a current hole will fill up with something later – or do I have room for another lupin? They at least don’t seem to mind the wet winter ground.

There were some good birds to be heard, including the mistle thrush, a redwing and the wren.  

In the morning, I went to the plot – two days into the Easter weekend! The red and yellow tulips look good, but I think I’ve lost the cream/pink ones. The pear tree has blossomed and the onions have sprouted in both beds. What I thought were blind new tulips now have flower heads and look rather like alliums so far.

I cut the grass around the pond slabs and the ones at the gate. I put some of the larger bits of turf outside the gate to make a start on bringing the level up a bit where the mole has ruined things a bit. I did the first mow of the season on 3. If I’ve got it in me, I’ll try a 2 tomorrow. The ground still feels so uneven, even as the grass gets shorter.

I took down all the Veronica stalks as the new growth has appeared – and found a ladybird hiding at the bottom. I also noticed the first new shoots on the helianthus, so I filled a bucket with those stalks. I expect another bucket could be filled with what’s left.

In other news, corners of some sheets don’t seem to be pegged down any more. Magpies might have been stealing them, I guess.

In the afternoon I sowed:

• 30 x French marigold
• 30 x Early Winder Mix zinnia
• 8 x Incredible sweetcorn
• 6 x Roma tomatoes
• 6 x Red Alert tomatoes
• 6 x Soleo sunflowers

A bit late, but not too bad. They’re inside for now. I’ll put the grow house up when the wind disappears, then most can go in there with lids on.

I still need to sow some Rudbeckia. Other flowers for the patches will probably be broadcast, assuming I’ve got the seeds in the shed.

I’m a bit behind my usual timeline, but the first seeds have now been sown: 16 x Tall sweet peas. They’re in my new root trainer, which is much more solid than the last one. I’ll try and get them to germinate in the warmth and then stick them outside, hoping for some slightly higher temps.

I’ve added compost ready for the runner beans, which I’ll put in at the weekend (Easter). I still don’t have a full plan for this year…

The first job was a small mend to the pond as something had been pecking/destroying a bit of the old ivy at the back of bird bowl. I cleared that up and filled the gap with pebbles. That then led into doing a good clear-up of the algae and duck weed. An upcoming job is clearing up the slabs so that I end up on them, not the grass, when I sit down.

I’ve finally finished the strimming. Some edges were already up high again and I went over a few again. Come Easter weekend I hope to get the mowing done for the first time. Trying to cut down some high edges is also on the list.

It looks like I might have a bluebell this year. I think the ones in the pots might be blind, but this one is in the ground. My bulbs are a bit hit-and-miss. I don’t know whether it is down to their quality, or how much their conditions affect them. The callicarpa moved from the front bed to a pot at home seems to be thriving now.

I saw a bird in the tree which had a red chest, but wasn’t a robin, and had a brown speckled back, but didn’t look like a sparrow. The app confirmed it was a common linnet, which flew off, but could still be heard.

I drove down to the plot for the first time this year, parking up by Pat’s plot. I was then able to take home buckets of weeds and various bits of rubbish.

The main aim was to plant the onion sets, but I did all kinds of other jobs too, including cutting back the nettles that I could reach from around the pond, and doing a little weeding. The earth isn’t dry enough yet to do a proper weed as you can’t shake the mud off the roots yet. I harvested a few parsnips to see how they’re keeping in the earth. Two of them were big and needed a big fight to get them out. Two were small and one was madly forked.

I prepped the onion beds – 2 and 8 – with superphosphate and spread the last of the bag around the garlic.

As usual, a few of the sets were mouldy, so they went on the compost. There’s a small gap left at the end of Bed 2, which could probably have a zinnia or some chard.

I aimed to do the remaining half of the strimming, but I was into much longer grass, so it was much more work. Two paths remain to be done. A lot had to be cut with the shears first, scraped up and then came the strimming and raking. Some of the grass roots are really matted and I need to do some Stanley knife cutting of the high edges where I can. Some big boot stomping will help bring them down too. The ground feels quite uneven at the moment.

The miniature tulips are coming up, and the daffodils in Bed 3 are just starting to bloom.

I’ve been accompanied by a small friend under the plastic the past few times. It runs about under the plastic and I hadn’t seen it until today. It’s the field vole, who ran off among the long grass when I first got there. Then it was back under the plastic, running about. I lifted the side of Bed 9 and it doesn’t smell great under there.

New shoots are coming up on the pickerel weed in the pond. The flag iris is also coming back to life.

It rained last night, but was lovely and sunny today. I made a start on strimming the ridiculously long grass in the plot. I managed half of it before giving in, raking up what grass I could. The two buckets of grass are a good addition to the compost heap, on top of all the cutting down.

The pond was full of algae, which was easy to pull out. There were several big damselfly larvae in the algae, which had an immediate instinct to hide and get back to the water. The shrimps aren’t that clever and need more help.

The veronica on the far side of the pond is thriving and a bee fly came to visit all the flowers.

The coreopsis has fallen apart in the middle. I should really see if I can split and rearrange it better.    

My forsythia was pecked to pieces by sparrows, so the middle piece is missing almost all its buds. I moved it nearer the house for protection as soon as I saw. It now has its first flower, and new leaves coming.