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I’ve been grovelling in the gravel all afternoon.   Weed work. And it’s great to get the courtyard cleared now, because when they take hold it’s devilishly hard to get them out later.   The roots of all sorts of festuca grasses and achillea take hold in the weedproof fabric under the gravel and will not budge.

So I added more sun screen, settled my hat firmly on my head, found a comfy seat and then set to work.

There is no easy way to do this. You have to pluck each and every weed out of the gravel.

Hours later I was still at it. But I had a companion. I can’t say his weeding technique is up to much. He kept getting cross when I moved the weeding bucket as it shifted his shade.

So eventually he reverted to great stalking beast and perched on the rock above my head.

And I can tell you it felt a bit like I was the gazelle on the velt and Artur was the predatory lion.

He kept peering down at me menacingly, and then tired of that and just fell asleep.

But he did stalk me later through the giant stipa grasses and thought it a great sport. I’m just glad he didn’t spot the bad back and the slow moving aching gait and single me out from the herd and pounce.

Earlier in the day I was much more active.   I planted out over 40 cabbage plants (all varieties) up at the top vegetable plot. There’s a nifty long anti cabbage moth net so I crammed it full of cavolo nero, red cabbage, tsoi sim and some turnip greens left over from the mass plant in the potager.

These veg get watered less often as it’s such a faff to haul up the hose, (it is around 100 metres from the tap) so they tend to be smaller and tougher. But oddly, they are less pestered by pests. Maybe the slugs just don’t do the altitude. Or the cabbage moth get enough sport in the lower plot.   But these veg are for eating later in the autumn. And if we don’t get such a killer winter again this year, they can go all over the colder months.

I have so many cabbages planted out in the potager I can barely move.   And it’s going to be a logistic feat just to get things weeded later in the season.

Watering is easy as I can water through the cloches, but I know that to lever up the anti pest supports can be playful.   I was reading Monty Don’s book about his cabbages – he hates netting, so he just visits each and every plant over the summer every day and picks off the eggs.   Oh, that I had the leisure to wander round each brassica and peer into the underside of every leaf. Why, the man must have staff.

I’ll stick with my cloches and nets for now.   And I will be smug until I see the enemy caught up inside the netting trying to get out.   That is so so annoying. But I guess when a butterfly needs to lay its eggs not much will deter it.   And there is always a gap somewhere at the ends of the cloches that I forget to secure in place.

I did an hour’s lawn mowing as well.   (Longer I suspect but I wasn’t clock watching) as I needed the mulch to hide the weedproof fabric on the path around the top of my potager.   The plan was to cover it with gravel. A nd I will do that eventually. But that can’t happen until the roofing materials are sorted (June).   And I know it is easy to turn a blind eye to an eyesore, but I came up with the solution on the very first mow.   Grass cuttings.

I use them on the paths up at the top veggie bed, so why not here?   I have chosen two good days where it will be hot and dry and turn the cuttings to a crisp beige, rather than green slime.   And I have the raw material.

Lawns, endless lawns. I would have loved to have done the east garden and the walnut path, but I just ran out of time. Still, the main lawn is fetching and the entrance to the garden below the house looks neater and is almost dandelion free. For now.

I had planned on ripping up all the grass that is in a thin strip in front of the compost bins and serves as access to the hose in the cellar in front of the house.

But I love the look of the lavenders and brown mulch contrasting so starkly with the green grass. I was admiring it so much I forot to take a photograph to illustrate the point.   Next trip.   Gravel would probably be easier in the long run. But weeds do creep into gravel as I well know. (And the numbness in the fingers from pulling the darn stuff out will testify).

Is there an optimum thickness of gravel that prevents weeds but doesn’t make you feel like you are doing laps of Manly beach? I’ll leave it all for now.

And there you have my last 12 hour day in the garden for a week.

Tomorrow I need to clear the potting shed of course. Trundle back and forth between the potting shed and the barn to keep the seedlings alive for a week out of the heat. But that’s fine. All the work one puts into growing things from seed mean you care enough not to kill the blighters just when they get to the small seedling stage.