9th June

To the allotment again, with hopes that my newly planted squashes have not succumbed to the intense heat which is still continuing today, my car thermometer reading 31˚C. The books tell me that pumpkins need a lot of watering whilst they are getting themselves established, whereas courgettes shouldn’t be given too much water until they are established as it will promote too much leaf growth at the expense of setting fruit. I am also informed that onions should not be watered unless in very prolonged hot, dry weather. Well, this afternoon it was a case of watering all three copiously. The squashes looked a little wilted but nothing I was too concerned with. The watering took ages as along with the above plants, I needed to water the salads, sweet peas (still only 2), leek seeds and the sprouts, calabrese and cauliflowers. One of the pumpkins has perished; there was a sad little dried and withered stump just lying on the soil. Was it natural causes? The weather? Or was it Dad strimming the long grass paths between the sections? Now that the long grass has been cut down, you notice the weeds more, so I set to work pulling up the weeds in the onion section. That was quite tough going as the soil was hard and dry. Onions really don’t appreciate competing with weeds and I have neglected this section, although it did sprout up while we were away and then we had the illnesses, and the wet. What’s an allotmenteer to do?

As I was on my second to last watering trip and yearning to be watered myself, I passed a man who came up with one of those brilliant English understatements: ‘a bit warm isn’t it’.