We seem to be repeating last year. The allotment is now almost fully planted and the weather gods seem to have forgotten how to produce rain. Thunderstorms have been promised but seemingly not for us. What is worse, from a gardening perspective, is that we have lots of sunshine and the sort of temperatures that dry out the soil.

Once again this year we are hauling watering cans in an attempt to keep everything alive and growing. I’ve spent two afternoons just watering everything. I know that the afternoon isn’t the ideal time to water but it’s the only time when few other gardeners are on site and we have the water more or less to ourselves. Although we have a tap for every four or five plots, if more than one person is trying to fill cans, or even worse is using a hosepipe, pressure drops to a trickle and it can take ages just to fill one can with water. This would mean we would have no chance of watering everything.

I did do a little planting at the beginning of the week. A few red cabbage plants were added to the brassica bed.

We also planted out the rest of the dahlias which had been growing in pots.

Martyn, planted out two lots of squash plants and some courgettes.

We harvested a few stems of rhubarb and several punnets of delicious strawberries.

I also picked some sweet Williams and sweet peas which filled the house with their scent.

If you are interested we have posted a video tour of our allotment here.

You may remember that when I trimmed our sarcoccoca, I decided to see if some of the bits that I had trimmed off would make cuttings. I popped six pieces in a pot and three have produced strong roots, two are just starting to root and the last piece although still fresh looking hadn’t produced roots. I’ve potted up the three strongest plants.

We had two afternoons at Nostell.

The undergrowth in the wooded areas is growing quickly now. Ruby’s nose is in danger of being nettled.

We spotted some different wild flowers in the wooded and meadow areas.

There are lots of dog daisies growing in verges and on the roundabouts around our area too.

Some of the meadows are now out of bounds as cattle have been moved in. Visitors can still access all areas but we don’t think entering a field containing dozens of very large cows is advisable with a dog. We’ve read of too many tragedies that have resulted in doing this.

As the grass is now quite long in many parts there are fewer places where Ruby can have a game of chase. She still expects the ball to come out when we approach her usual play areas despite the length of the grass. Fortunately, we still manage to find some places where the grass has been cut short enough for a game.

Fortunately Ruby has less wool than in the above photo as she was clipped just in time before the hotter weather took hold.

The weather and our watering regime aren’t the only repeats of last year. As last year the pair of swans are raising six cygnets. The cygnets are growing up quickly and already have swan-like necks. Hopefully, they are now of a size where they should be less vulnerable. Fingers crossed like last year all survive to adulthood.