Fantastic sun this afternoon – and the plot is bathed in it. I can’t tell you how different it feels without the gloom of the hedge running next to it. There are masses of birds on the feeders.

I’ve cleared last year’s fennel bed, which I should have done last year, but with all the rain I couldn’t be bothered then. Now I see why I should have – the bed is full of couch. I planned to pot up the strawberries so I could move them, but I can’t find many under the couch grass and the rotten straw. My mint has escaped too, and is making a fairly strong bid for full Bed Overlordery…I have really really learned my lesson about not finishing clearing at the end of the season!

At home the leeks have not come through, I am fairly certain that I sowed them too deeply. Will have to have another go. I couldn’t sit on my hands any longer and I have resown beetroot (Touchstone Gold and Bolardy) & sown some self-saved dwarf beans that I can keep on the balcony and whip inside when it’s chilly. The nigella is starting to germinate – I was just about to give up them.

Mum gave me her squirrelled-away seed stocks last year, which were all flowers and herbs and all out of date. Really out of date. Some should have been sown in 1982… This week I have sown an entire packet of rudbeckia – with a sow by date of 1992. I don’t underestimate the power of seeds to want to grow, and I’m really keen to see what happens.