It’s been a while since I posted an Allotment Adventures post (I’ve heard all about from the weeder in chief!) and it’s not because we haven’t been there, it’s just because I haven’t had the wherewithal to write a post. So let’s catch up.

I had godchild with me on Friday 1^st July, Ma and I did most of the work, while they ate berries, the harvest was still great given how behind I was with the summer planting, so I am not complaining. We had the Open Day on 3 July and I won a silver for the state of the plot, as did my plot neighbour, Tana, maybe they were blinded by all the verbena flowers on our plots, it’s possible. 842 people visited and the comments about the site were lovely, I did the whole four hours behind the bar and I poured a lot of Pimm’s.

At the end of last week, it started to get really hot again (still is) and my visits to the plot to open the polytunnel and water have increased.

On Saturday, we had so much to do and it was so hot, Ma and I really surprised ourselves by how much we managed, especially as during a heatwave, I concentrate on harvest and watering, frankly the weeds can grow, I’ll deal with them when it’s less hot. Ma started by collecting her gooseberries and my plan was to attend to my tomato babies (those plants are wayward and headstrong!) I got to the polytunnel tomatoes, at which point Ma fell into the gooseberry bushes. It was decided that she’d collect the blueberries and I’d get scratched by the gooseberry bushes! After I’d picked them I went back to my tomatoes and Ma started cutting up the chard that had gone to seed.

Then it was time for the epic watering, we watered the entire plot, collected beetroot and potatoes as well and then started to think about the brassicas that had arrived that morning. We got 20 cabbages in the ground and the rest are in the polytunnel trying to avoid melting or being eaten by slugs, until next Saturday when we plant them out.

At the moment, I’m just trying to keep everything going through the heatwave.