Sun is Shining

The extended period of hot weather has really caused an explosion of growth on our plot. Excellent stuff this sunshine!

It has meant more time spent on watering duties but that’s fine with us as there isn’t a whole lot of other stuff to be doing at the moment.

This is a good time of year to be on the plot. Everything seems to be growing well and there are still some plants in the coldframe waiting for their turn to be planted out.

Paint it Black

Or perhaps a sludgy pale green. The shed is now painted and should be OK for another few years. We’re hoping that the two coats of paint will do their part to hold the shed together.

It was a hot day when we got the paintbrush out and the paint dried almost immediately upon contact with the weathered wood allowing two coats to be applied in quick succession.

Obviously no preparation whatsoever was made to the shed’s surface before painting commenced but the finish is surprisingly acceptable. Need to choose a fence paint colour now.

Rain O’er Me

Plenty of time was taken to water the more delicate denizens of our plot once the heat of the day had abated.

The basics such as cabbages, courgettes and spuds are all finding their own underground water sources but our tomatoes and recently planted celeriac and beans still need a bit of added water.

Hopefully the good weather will come to an end soon – never thought we’d say that – and we can get back to a couple of days of heavy rain every week.

Pick Your Own

We had a plea from a fellow allotment holder for help picking his strawberries and mange tout. It was a simple deal – he had an absurd amount of both and was pretty much sick of them.

We dutifully obliged with an extended picking spree and went home with half a carrier bag of each. Always nice to help someone out!

A few days later he was in touch once again asking for us to repeat the exercise which we have since done. If we could advertise this service to enough other allotment holders we might be able to give up our plot.