Very little progress – disappointing, but I was so fed up with the interminable digging that I thought I’d have a break from the plot for a week. Work has been a bit demanding too.

The things I have done – potted on seedlings and germinated 15 sweetcorn for a plot neighbour whose seedlings carked it, mooched about the plot looking dismally at how much further ahead others are and put up the culticave. That in itself was a bit of a disappointment as it’s got several cuts in the plastic. I’ve written to the company and hopefully it can be sorted out.

And while I am on my eeyore-like trail of gloom, it looks like the mare’s tail may have made it over to my plot from my neighbour. The beetroot in the new bed has taken a battering from the birds, but the other things in the bed seem to be surviving so far.

But the break from the plot has been a good thing, I’m looking forward to getting back into it – and at least thanks to the rain the soil is less like concrete.