The soil is almost soupy. Its certainly sludgy, sticky, claggy and just about impossible to work. Oh deary deary me, who would opt to have clay soil especially after the amount of rain we’ve had this year? We measure our rainfall in a train spotting kind of way and this year we have recorded 7 and a half inches of rain. Last year it wasn’t until mid July that we’d had the same amount. Consequently there have been many days when weeding was simply out of the question because the garden was too water-logged. But every now and then I think I really must do some weeding because the weeds are growing at an alarming rate (as they always do at this time of year). I regret it almost immediately because its not easy to remove creeping buttercup or rosebay willow herb, never mind the clumps of wild grass which are threatening to take over everything. And while I’m having a good grumble, I often wonder why weeds choose to put themselves in the middle of other plants? The likelihood of getting  much done is remote because its just too frustrating and anyway, I’m removing a lot of the sticky wet stuff each time I get a weed out. I try to work on bits of the garden which are less wet which in turn means I do a bit here and then a bit there so it all looks the same after toiling away for a couple of hours.

The forget-me-nots have suffered a bit from some of the frosts we’ve had this last week or so. Some of them are not looking good so its time to remove them which is quite a time consuming job but if I start now then maybe there won’t be so many next year. fanciful thoughts really because there are always plenty however early I remove them.

I need to do some planting but it will have to wait until the ground it slightly drier. I also have a plan to remove some Miscanthus which have a lot of weeds in them and replace with some fresh plants. Yet the forecast says more rain tomorrow……