My gardening DIARY

MONDAY Have never seen such a heavy crop of apples on our ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ tree as we’ve had this year. They were thinned earlier but perhaps we should have gone further.

TUESDAY Seed cleaning is in full swing. It’s one of the few gardening activities where we can remain dry. We’ve collected lots of seeds and need to clean and prepare them.

WEDNESDAY Although there are numerous plants that can be propagated from root cu ings, they’re not all desirable. Docks grow brilliantly from pieces of root! Oriental poppies are in short supply here so we’re starting with them, leaving plants in situ, carefully digging down the side, severing a couple of the fa est roots and cu ing them into chunks, pushed into gri y compost in modules until they’re flush with the top.

THURSDAY Sorting out our pond is quite a priority. Several a empts during the year to clear duckweed have been unsuccessful; for a few weeks the water remains clear but shortly afterwards the surface of the pond begins to look green again.

FRIDAY Sowing larkspur seed into half trays. There are two varieties, one rich blue, the other pale sky-blue with white splashes on the lower petals. Seed was from two self-sown plants in our veg troughs.

SATURDAY There are several double-flowered forms of philadelphus, and we’ve one growing in a pot. We used it in a Channel 5 gardening programme. One of the best scented shrubs there is (its common name is mock orange), it would make a lovely addition to Alice’s new garden.

SUNDAY Trying to work backwards from what we want to eat from our garden next year. Thinking about what we’d be hoping to eat when and therefore when we would need to sow them. We won’t have a foolproof calendar but it might prove a timely reminder to get on and sow, prick out and plant out.