July has been mostly warm and dry, perhaps a little too warm at times to be on the allotment for long periods of time. This week has been very warm until today with Thursday breaking the record for the hottest July day. I thought I was going to melt. Furnace Thursday could even be on target to be the hottest day ever recorded in the UK.

The intense heat sparked thunderstorms and today is wet and cool which will bring great relief to many people I’m sure, not just us gardeners. The allotment is soaking up this much-needed rain and the leeks and second crop of peas are loving it, unfortunately slugs are loving it too and rather greedily helped themselves to pak choi and radish seedlings I failed to protect. Oh well, there’s plenty of time to sow more.

Some of the sunflowers are looking a bit bedraggled from the rain, heads hanging low but still so pretty. Multi headed sunflowers keep coming albeit a little smaller each time.

I think I massively overestimated the space available in the pumpkin and squash bed, I swear I can hear the vines growing.

As you can see the vines can grow very large and cover a lot of ground quickly. To identify where to water pumpkins and winter squash I pop bottles over canes and insert into the soil near the main stems when planting.