The allotment is looking a little worse for wear, to be honest. That’s the impact of four, five, possibly six heatwaves during the summer.
The bonus is that it has given us a bumper crop in terms of tomatoes and courgettes. The latter, in particular, have expanded with almost freakish proportions and can’t quite decide if they want to become marrows or not.
The lack of water is now starting to show. There’s not a lot of green around but fans of sand-coloured hues and backgrounds won’t be disappointed.
Long gone are the days when I have had to obsess about heading up there every couple of weeks to trim the borders as part of the requirement with the Town Council lease. Grass is currently not a concept across the entire allotment patch.
Watering has scaled down a little in recent weeks. We’ve had a few downpours, which have relieved us of the burden.
Hose pipes are available to use at the allotment but the lease also says you can’t directly spray water over your green goodness. Instead there’s the laborious task of filling up the water butts and then using these with the watering can.
It’s been something of a steep learning curve but also a fun introduction to allotment life this summer. I feel that we’ve entered into the agreement at perhaps the best and worst of times: plenty of sun, little water.
Thoughts are already starting to stretch ahead to what might happen during the winter months. Spoiler alert: I think we’re going to get shit loads of rain around the Estuary Wilds.
Some leek and carrot seeds have been ordered. An allotment is for life and not just the summer months.