I went up for a quick hour early this morning to add a couple of bags of wet, unrotted leaves from last year to the navy bed as wormfood. If I’m going to do this leafmould thing properly I need to either construct some decent bins or lay in a stock of builder’s bags so the leaves have a chance to rot down. They aren’t doing anything much in the pierced bin bags.

I took the Tonda Padana squash home to cure on the windowsill as the vine has completely died, together with an aubergine and lots of runner beans, which are surprisingly tasty. The padron peppers I pollinated have set, which should mean a good supply of seed for next year. I pollinated a couple of butternuts – the slugs eat the male and female flowers really quickly if I don’t provide defensive bags so at least this way they might come to something. No harm in seeing whether they do I guess. The late-sown dwarf borlotti beans are also coming up – again a bit of a gamble.

I am reaping the benefits of my office being located in a conference centre and the events season starting up again – so far it’s taken just 2 weeks to collect 23 toilet roll tubes.

I am also starting to eye the blackthorn hedge, which needs trimming down by 5ft again. The sun is starting to dip behind the oak tree and the hedge, which puts half the plot in deep shade for most of winter.