With the general relaxation of lockdown rules last Saturday, the allotment committee decided that people like my mum could come back in! Which we were both very excited about.

Four and a half hours on the plot and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere because I wasn’t worrying about the weeding and the jobs that needed to be done.

So I halved the old broad bean bed, fed and watered and tied up the tomatoes (again!), I got one side of the paths weeded (the battery ran out after that), I cut back the gooseberry bushes (they didn’t produce and they are going to be moved in about 3 months so I didn’t want them to get too out of control and I wanted to weed around them), we put the Grandparents ‘plague’ in the rose garden, I weeded the flower beds, the rose garden and around the apple tree.

It felt like loads but there is more to do. I’ve been feeling really behind on the plot this year, how behind well I don’t have courgette yet, but things are growing, this week, we got rhubarb, carrot tops for pesto, beetroots and blueberries. The first winter squash bed is really stretching out and the tomatoes are setting fruit, tiny fruit but they’ll grow…

I’ll be there tomorrow to have a quick check and pick some more blueberries but the next tranche of work begins on Saturday, when I might just finish this list!

• cut the grass on the paths and at the back of the plot
• pot up the calendula, replant some of it in the flower bed under the plum tree
• put up a bigger cage for the kale
• pot up the blueberries
• cut back the mint and the lemon balm
• weed the paths (again)
• plant up the bulbs in front bed
• find a location for and plant the thyme plant
• halve the old broad bean bed
• ‘fence’ in the pond area
• deadhead the roses
• sow florence fennel
• sow more beetroot
• sow salad leave
• sow pak choi
• keep everything watered and fed