2026 - What I did today.

Made some fat ball for the bird. Me & the neighbours had tours of each others gardens. Just something we do once in a while.

Potted on cosmos and a few more tomatoes.
Planted out sage, strawberries, snapdragons and foxgloves.

Poked some bamboo canes in where the bean/pea frame will be dug out a trench either side and dumped some horse manure in the trenches. Before I could cover it up two holly blue butterflies settled in for a feed. They were resident all afternoon. Rehydrated a 75 lt cube of coir in the wheelbarrow. Potted on a few toms. Put the rest of the donated horse manure into store.

Sieved some more old compost from 2 of last year's 30 litre pots. In one I found some baby new potatoes. Half way down the other pot, there were lots of strong, upright shoots - which turned out to be growing from a tightly packed mass of acorns! Some little creature must have secreted them there - though when and how is the big question!
Decided to clear the ground under the sweet chestnut tree (grown from a nut - by a nut!). Plenty of montbretia, woundwort, brambles as well as good stuff like bluebells and pineapple mint, both of which I tried to leave in situ. I intend to sow some Tree spinach and Amaranth seeds here.
Kept having to stop as Ted was bringing me baby mice that he'd found under a bush. They were too small to identify and, being chomped by a dog didn't help their appearance!

Just some weeding today.

Lots of tomato juggling, repotting and watering. Seed sowing. First lot of tomatoes in sales barrow.

Started to fill pots ready for tomato plants. First, I had to empty them of whatever was growing in them - mostly salad leaves of various sorts. Since they were flowering and setting seed I replanted them around the garden wherever I could find a gap!
Then I sieved the old compost and mixed it with some newer stuff. Lined the bottom of the pots with wool insulation and refilled them with compost. I've done 5 today.
Then I went back to weeding under the sweet chestnut and the dwarf orchard. I scattered Amaranth and Tree Spinach seeds in a bare patch.
I've also been playing a little "Johnnie Apple Seed" game scattering calendula seeds in any bare patch. This may become my new game - put a jar of random old seeds in my pocket and - whenever I pull up a weed, I'll sow a few seeds in its place. Veggie Scatter Seed - that's me.

Moved outside into the little greenhouse any flower seeds that have sprouted. Told everyone in the family that the sweetcorn has sprouted.

Had a sweep / scrape of the polytunnel floor. Being permanently wet makes it tricky. Emptied the post box bed of all the rusty old garden tools. In preparation of its makeover.

Went to the garden center to buy ericaceous compost and of course a few plants. I'm currently fixated on growing flowers to cut and sell, perhaps an extension of my flower focus this year. I need SC and Scarlet to tell me it's too difficult and to be sensible. I'm currently making a spreadsheet......