11 April

Today I got stuck into a few areas that I've let get away, namely, the corner near the pond where the strawberries and weeds have gone mad, and the patch down near the gooseberry which has been taken over by the carnation.

The carnation has been there for several years and all it does is sprawl and produce flower buds that rot and fall off. Probably I could improve its situation by moving it, but I was fed up with it so just ripped it out. I dug in some compost to improve the moss situation and planted up some seeds: nasturtiums, calendula, larkspur and marigold. I also cut back the cineraria in the same area to get rid of some of the woody stems.

We gave Sigmund a thorough pruning - there were a lot of dead vines which we were able to chop out, leaving Sigmund much smaller than before. But Sigmund always comes back and there are leaf buds on the bare stems already so there will be leaves by next weekend.

The patch by the pond was thick with creeping buttercup and grass. I cleared some of it but will need to go back another day. I planted some seeds on the sunny side of the garden: two types of beetroot (one from Mr Fothergill, one from Morissons bought who knows how long ago) and some miscellaneous larkspur seeds also from who knows how long ago.

Blueberries have lots of flower buds so they should be very productive when it's berry season, just to be generous I put some new soil in the pots. None of the other berries are at that stage yet, although I got rid of 21 baby strawberry plants to people at work this week.

Fruit trees: the Cox has leaves on it and the new Beurre Hardy almost has leaves. The Red Williams and the James Grieve are falling behind. In fact I'm worried something go into the Red Williams as it looks like the new shoots are just producing flowers, no leaves. And I saw ants on it the other day which makes me fear the sap sucking insects are in there sucking the goodness out of the new shoots.

Greenhouse: this year's winner is the Kailaan, going great guns. But there has been germination amongst some of the sunflowers, the kale, the tomatoes and some of the basil. I'll have to remember to water more often now the temperature is picking up, don't want to encounter wilting plants like I did the other day. Some of the Kailaan is big enough that I might try planting a few out next weekend.

Daffodils are still in flower and tulips are coming out. Most common is the deep pink colour but there are one each of a cream-tipped pink and a yellow-tipped red as well. I'm tagging them this year to know which bulb is which when I'm sorting them at season end as I promised some to Amanda.