Feels like summer

The recent few weeks of very hot weather have been a blessing for the plot in that it’s really helped the plants that were struggling a little after a delayed start to the season. Having said that, we are making extra visits for watering duties which has become a bit tiresome. It’d be really great if a few heavy downpours could be arranged fairly soon. Preferably in the middle of the night. Thanks.

One benefit of the baking hot weather is that the slugs have been reluctant to surface. This has given some of our previously slug-chewed plants time to recover and they should now be strong enough to withstand the slugs if they reappear – and they will at some point.

With the absence of slugs comes the increase in horseflies which might actually be more annoying. They don’t eat our veg, but they do try to eat us!

We had a lovely crop of strawberries this year. Maybe not quite as consistent in size as previous years but the abundance of them made up for it. They seem to be finished now but we had a couple of punnets worth every few days for a couple of weeks. The gooseberries also seem to be doing well this year.

Actually, it’s a really enjoyable time on the allotment. The hard work has been done and is but a distant memory. All our veg and flowers are doing well and apart form watering and weeding there isn’t a great deal to do.  We only need to pick what’s ready, admire the view and find a bit of shade. It’s always surprising to see the transition on the plot during the course of June and see how full to bursting it gets in just the space of a month.

Oh, and perhaps we should be thinking of some measures to protect our sweetcorn from badgers this year. Nothing we have tried in the last four years seems to stop them though…