Armpitted and twisted in the tomatoes.
Cut the veg garden paths.
Weeded a bit.
Made some more comfrey tea.
Ranted at the deer (wrong hole) and relished the rain.
Cleaned out the chook house and added the bedding to a compost bin.
Pulled up some weedy raspberry canes. I wait until they're fruiting to see whether they deserve a future or not. If the raspberries are small, fall apart when touched or are yellow, up they come. After yesterday's rain the ground was soft and pulling them up was a doddle. Very satisfying!
Finally started planting things in the flower border. Came to the conclusion that I haven't the free space for all the perennials I've sown from the seed swap, e.g.echium, salvia, helichrysum, not when they need square feet to thrive. Did find space for a very small neglected delphinium, he should be thinking of flowering about now but there's not much chance of that.
Harvested the remaining garlic.
Planted out 40 leeks.
Planted bird's beak chillies/peppers (10) and many, many zinnias.
Cleared algae from the pond.
Chopped the wild invasive bits from the gherkin forest.
Removed the chopped phacelia from the soon to be leek bed, ready for planting tomorrow, forgetting that I'm working. Hopefully the surface won't dry out too much
before Wenesday.
Finally planted all the old potatoes in the couch infested patch. Pulled up as many runners as I could but I know it will be back with a vengeance.
Pulled up a lot of montbretia as it was invading the path. Also a daylily that was in the middle of the montbretia. Similar leaves (that's my excuse).
Pruned and deadheaded the Zephirine drouhin roses. Stuck a couple of cuttings in nearby against the fence.
Cut back a weigela which was overhanging another path at head height (that's low). Its almost finished flowering so I'll give it a better hack then. Chopped up all the branches and dropped them on the path as mulch.
Checked on the odd squashes and achocha that have been planted recently - they seem to have survived so far.
Strimmed rough patches for about an hour then picked some raspberries and redcurrants for an hour and a cucumber.
Yesterday did a load of hoeing as it's so dry here. Just had a look at where I did and all are well withered. Usually, when it's damp, some are sticking up as if nothing happened to them.
More Milling. Then started/ continued emptying the big tunnel. The big tunnel is now officially an overflow shed until I have my new veg garden.
Planted out the remaining leeks(22), 20 modules of spring onions, and a caucasian spinach
It was warm here while we were away and some plants were very dry when we got back. I've been watering for two nights now, in the hope they will recover. Everything in the greenhouse miraculously has survived nicely. The teenager did us proud
I've chopped back the plants along the path down to the back garden, as it was tricky to walk through without getting mauled by the rose.