I only planted potatoes this year because nothing else will grow. Spuds are great for leeching any nastiness out of the soil and "cleansing" it. Hopefully, this means that next year, where the spuds are now, will be lawn again, as it was previously. This however, could be scuppered by the arrival of pigeons in the butterfly bush that I was going to chop down to the height of the fence - it has a tendancy to block the light and it's getting a bit leggy. The pigeon pair have started nesting in it, next door to the now disused tit nest. How something as heavy as a pigeon manages to settle on such a leggy, springy bush is beyond me, they must be too stupid to realise gravity affects them as well. At least they're proper wood pigeons, and not the scabby, mottled, deformed and diseased hybrids you get everywhere else in London.

The thought of runner beans along the ivy fence is appealing , if only for the fun of seeing those bright red flowers in amongst the ivy.

LTS