When I arrived at the plot at 12.30 I thought it a good time to take a photo to show the extent of the shade problem with my plot.

Here you see the three-storey flats on the East of my plot(slightly south-east!), and the large beech tree...now in leaf . My plot is just beyond the hedge at the back of this photo.......! (Pause to admire Brian's plot in the foreground!)


Now we are alongside the shed and you can see how shaded my plot is early afternoon (12.30pm), having been in shade from the flats all morning.

This is how it looked when I left at 2.30. The raspberries are still in shade.

I understand they are woodland plants naturally so hope they like this spot enough to fruit well.

I did an hours worth of hoeing....the spuds were all up so I earthed them up into furrows....see picture. The onions, carrots, beetroot and all the fruit were a little weedy so I did them too. I was tempted to water everything but thought I'd wait until tomorrow so the little weeds are truly dead before I give everything a drink.

I did an hour digging out some of the big herbaceous plants from the area I'm digging next, plus a tidy up round the hedge bottom and the compost bins, and then a couple of short rows of proper digging. I wish it would rain....all night! (The ground is a bit unrewarding to dig and I soon tired of it.) Needless to say we didn't get enough of that rain that you all got ....just enough to lay the dust on the roof. Nothing in the butts. The soil I earthed up round the spuds was like dust. A new experience for me as I've never gardened on soil like that before.