All the hard work is starting to pay off, the allotment is producing plenty to take home to the kitchen. Beans and courgettes will need picking daily; blanche and freeze beans to avoid a glut or waste, try to pick courgettes before they become too big and watery. Now is the time I call the second spring – a time to sow crops for winter and spring harvesting! Plant out young plants as space becomes available.
- Keep watering tomatoes (especially greenhouse varieties), pinch out side shoots as they appear and growing tips once 4 or 5 trusses have formed. Keep feeding. For ripening tomatoes, tie in main stems to extra canes to support heavy trusses.
- Cut to the ground all the summer fruiting raspberry canes that have borne fruit, tie in the new green canes for next years fruit.
- Pick courgette flowers for stuffing or frying
- Harvest main crop potatoes, keep earthing up rows to prevent tubers turning green
- Begin harvesting sweetcorn
- Keep cutting sweet pea flowers to bring indoors, remove seed pods to encourage more flowers
- Ventilate the greenhouse
- Give the shed a coat or two of paint or stain
- Water regularly
- Harvest onions if ready, allow to dry before storing
- Propagate strawberries by gently pushing rooted runners into the soil or small pots of soil. Sever the runner from the adult plant as the runners put on growth and develop a stronger root system.
- Pinch out the tops of climbing beans to prevent them becoming top-heavy
- Prevent heads of white cauliflowers turning yellow in the sun by pulling the nearest large leaves over and snapping into place
- Harvest regularly and enjoy!
Seeds to sow this month:
- Spring cabbage
- Winter hardy cabbages such as savoy
- Cauliflower All The Year Round or a spring maturing variety such as Aalsmeer
- Use up old pea seeds for cut and come again shoots
- Pak Choi
- Japanese overwintering onions
- Beetroot
- Swiss Chard
- Carrots
- Kale
- Fennel
- Winter lettuce
- Salad leaves
- Kohl Rabi
- Herbs such as parsley and coriander
- Radish (summer and winter)
Allotment Haven 
Good post. With the ground as it is I’m thankful I don’t plant or sow anything at this time of year. xx
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Yes it’s certainly a tricky year for gardening! Thankfully, raised beds make planting and sowing that little bit easier during drought, the tricky bit is keeping it watered as they do tend to dry out quicker. Swings and roundabouts. Fingers crossed for rain soon eh Flighty!
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