This relentless hot weather meant that watering was, of course, the top priority at the Community Allotment. Working in the heat meant that we almost ended up redder than our Tshirts! There was also just enough time for Sol to pot up some alpine strawberry runners and Sheila to trim the unruly tomatoes. Sol also harvested some beans and welsh onions for her dinner. Delicious!

Friday afternoon arrived quickly and it was time to head to the Community allotment to help to water the plants.

Christine, Didem, and Angela joined Sol on a very sunny afternoon. This made the task a quick and enjoyable work. We chatted away about summer trips and sampled some raspberries.

Discussion about kale, onions and leeks ensued, and we admired how well the runner beans have grown this season.

Watering was done in quick time, and Sol was able to head off to Birmingham a bit earlier.

Happy weekend!

Yesterday afternoon, Sheila and I headed over to the Community Allotment to answer the call of some very thirsty plants. Given all this hot, dry weather, the veggies, young trees and raspberry plants in the little orchard are in constant need of watering.

Armed with watering cans (and trying not to drink the water ourselves!), we made sure everything got a thorough soaking. The beans, tomatoes, squash, raspberries and trees should all be breathing a sigh of relief now.

With watering duties complete and a little time to spare, we turned our attention to some plant pampering. The tomato plants had their side shoots pinched out to help them focus on producing lovely fruit, and we tackled a bit of light weeding to stop the unwanted guests from stealing all the water we'd just given the crops.

By the end of the session, we were definitely the hot ones, while the plants were no longer the thirsty ones. Mission accomplished! 🌱💧☀️

The allotment is looking fantastic, and with a bit more sunshine (and perhaps some much needed rain??!...) everything should continue to flourish.

Anna and Sheila went to the community allotment today in some warm conditions. While we filled the water butts with the hose, we did all the watering using watering cans. We were joined by another volunteer Jessica and her daughter. Anna and Jessica took on the task of training the squashes away from strangling the tomatoes while Sheila pinched out the tomato side shoots. We left all the water butts full, ready for watering in the coming week

Diya and Kanika filled in for this week's regular watering and odd jobs at the community allotment. We filled the water butts, watered all the beds and did some weeding (🤞) in the Asparagus bed.

Unsurprisingly enough, the main task at the Community Allotment was watering! Whilst Georgeta and Sol heroically used the watering cans, Sheila used the hose. Between the 3 of us we soon got the watering done, which gave us time to do some other jobs. Whilst we left one of the empty water butts filling we decided to tackle the tomatoes, which had all gone wild and were all tangling up together. With some new stakes and twine, and cutting off all the rogue side shoots, we got the plants under control and the fruit will now have space to develop. A hot, but successful session