We’re heading towards the middle of the month and we’ve actually had some rain. We haven’t had a really wet day, just a few days in a row with showers.

As you can see, the rainfall this month is adding up. Now it’s the middle of September there’s no hot sunshine between the showers and although it’s been a pleasantly mild start to the month with above average temperatures the soil doesn’t dry up as quickly as it did in the middle of July.

The result is that some of the beds at the allotment are just about in the correct condition for digging over. Beds that have been watered throughout summer are now okay for digging. Two beds where sweetcorn has been harvested and the plants removed have been dug over. I need to decide whether to cover them with weed control fabric or not. The advantage of covering them is that it will stop any weeds from growing over winter.

We can now begin to concentrate on jobs that have been on hold over the summer. The priority jobs over the last few months have been watering and harvesting. There’s plenty of tidying up to do. Some of the trees on the plot are in need of cutting back. Some parts have been neglected for a while and will take some time to get back into shape.

So far temperatures this September have been above average however the forecast is for cooler temperatures arriving by the end of the week. It will be a shock to the system as its been several months since we have had any cool weathe