Arrived last night to find the riddling trench waterlogged. Which was not surprising after Monday's rain. The pond is half full - the deepest it's been since last winter. A serious bout of riddling being out of the question, I turned two of the compost heaps, (there are three now: the old one in the NE corner, un-turnable due to its proximity to a wasps' nest; the main compost heap nearby, and a new one on a still-to-be riddled stretch of the long bed, (formerly the 5th bed). Then I trimmed the tops of all plants in the hedgerow along the N and W sides.

This was the first time in a while that I've had a look at the hedgerow. It made my heart glad to see how well it's doing. The gorse are at least 1ft high, some of them nearly 2ft. Other plants such as elder are belly-high. Overall, median height I'd guess is 2ft - about twice as high as I expected. At this rate, it could have its first bird nests next spring. One question now is, do I weed and mulch it this winter? Or leave it to its own devices now that it's big enough and ugly enough to take care of itself?

Before I left I took off the old Dr Marten's and donned the wellies, and had a go at riddling. The soil to be riddled was lying in the bottom of the trench, and was very sodden. Pushing it through the riddle quickly soaked the heavy duty riddling gloves. But it did go through. I did about 3 shovel-fulls, half a barrow-full, and called it a day.

This is really significant in the plan for completing the navvying and starting to garden. It's become clear that the riddling won't be finished before... well, some time before next spring. But I was concerned that work would have to stop over the winter when the ground naturally gets wetter. It won't. I just need to big old pair of rubber gloves to put over the leather gardening gloves, and I can work right through.

Voila. I'm on course to get to a fully functional allotment by next April or May. Here's what needs doing:

1. carry on riddling until the spoil of stones and glass raises and levels the shed base;
2. build the shed;
3. finish riddling "5th bed";
4. during 1-3, harvest WFBs, and sow with oomska when possible and wherever's cleared, (up to end November);
5. set up polytunnel; 
6. plant hedgerow on rest of long bed and SW bed boundaries using these plants;
7. make bird proof frames.

Items 1-7 are essential. What follows are things I'd like to do, time permitting:

• weed and mulch hedgerow;
• raise and re-lay path;
• lay brick hard standing-area to north of shed;
• weed and re-sow pond and its margins.