For the first time this year the 5 day weather forecast has no shades of blue. Even though the wind is cold, there's real heat in the sun and the sense that the worst is behind us. The hour change tonight may be man-made but is also a watershed in real gardening terms: instead of watching TV there's almost a duty to get out in the evenings and to do futile battle with the burgeoning weeds.

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In anticipation of this extra working hour or two, I moved anything higher than a slug's elbow out of the greenhouse - ostensibly to harden off - but in reality just to make room for some new things to sow. Not boring brassicas or more tomatoes, but nice big seeds like courgettes and melons. And interesting things like couve tronchuda and red spring onions.

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Harvest-wise things are looking grim. What's left of the kale is flowering away and the overwintered bunching onions are starting to form seed heads. Fortunately, the salad crops are going well and the baby salad leaf mix provided a first crop, albeit tiny, from a 2007 sowing.