2026 - What I did today.

Finished weeding the cut flower bed and top dressed it with 4 barrow loads of manure. Transplanted an aquilegia and a pansy that had appeared in the cut flower bed into the beds with the rest of their respective varieties. Planted out a lupin, pansy, carnations & 4 yarrow that have been waiting to go into existing bed. Cleared the raised bed in the veg garden. Mixed lots of old seeds. Harvested things.

Chopped up more apple tree branches. Weeded a patch and scattered some past their best lettuce, pakchoi and mustard seeds. Emptied some old carrot, herb and beetroot seeds into jamjars for the next random sowing.

Collected lots of fallen branches and removed some ivy.

For most of the day I was sitting (coopieing?) In the middle of no.2 compost bin, sieving the remaining compost and bagging it up for later use. As P has started moving lawns, I needed to clear a bin for the arisings. He did mention it was a good playpen for me and kept me out of trouble.    The access panel of the square dalek I had filled with wood chippings had collapsed, strewing chips over the ground, so I stuffed all those back and devised a strengthening system for the panel.
He, on the other hand, was chopping down a dead sumac , digging and chopping out the roots plus protecting some young adjacent sumac shoots from being mown off.

The weather was lovely,  not too hot not too cold, just right. Tee shirt (or less) weather. A good day was had by all.

Topped up raised bed with 3 barrow loads of manure. Sown random seeds. Rain stopped play.

Fishing for second day in a row. Fished one brown trout reservoir yeaterday and blanked. Fished a rainbow trout reservoir today and caught two and lost half a dozen trout.
Exercising this evening but Archery is cancelled so my poor arms will be thankfull after fishing then upper body pump with weights.

Went to the plot and shifted some compost barrels around. Found a surprise bit of decent compost in the bottom of one. Moved a bin to the top of the plot to fill with the comfrey I dug out and the stinky contents of a pond liner that had been used to collect weeds. I too became very stinky in the process. Dug up some grass in unwanted places and beheaded any bindweed shoots I noticed.

Emptied the compost out of last year's dwarf tomato troughs (2) into a crate in my (under development) crate garden.
Weeded VP1 which may be home to some peas soon.

Went to the plot. Found the big compost bin wasn't ready with any usable compost so dumped in a bunch more fresh material. Went around digging random patches of grass and the inevitable bindweed roots that were encroaching into the beds. Moved an arch and wound the loganberry through it. I've tried this before with no luck but I'm slow to learn. Chatted with plot neighbour and the man who lives next door to the allotment site whose garden is being flooded by the overflowing drainage ditch. Perils of an allotment sited on a former river bed and a council that doesn't keep strictly to its obligation to clear the silted up drainage system.

Potted on some tomato jaune flamme. Did some measuring and redesigning of the veg garden. Made some fat balls for the birds.