Summer

 

Things are really hotting up now as the growing season gets into full swing. There is always something that needs doing, but there is also plenty of opportunity to sit back after your labours and simply enjoy the peace of the allotment.

General advice

  • Regularly feed fruit and veg in pots and growbags with liquid fertiliser.
  • Don’t under-estimate the strength of the sun and the effects of pollen. Use sun block, wear a hat, take an anti-histamine.
  • Keep up with the watering, although not always necessary in a wet summer. If you have a greenhouse you will still need to water daily.

Early-season jobs

  • Plant out tender vegetables such as tomatoes, squash and outdoor cucumbers.
  • Direct sow courgettes, pumpkins and French and runner beans.
  • Succession sow small quantities of salad, herbs and greens every two to three weeks for continual picking.
  • Check to see if first, second and salad potatoes are ready to be harvested.

Mid-season jobs

  • Last chance to sow French beans.
  • Plant potatoes in containers for a Christmas crop.
  • Thin top fruit for a better quality harvest.
  • Water tomatoes regularly and evenly to prevent the fruit splitting.
  • Tie in vigorous stems of blackberries and hybrid berries to crop next year.
  • Keep deadheading flowers to ensure a longer flowering period.
  • Apply copper-based fungicide to prevent potato and tomato blight.
  • Remove side shoots on cordon tomatoes and tie plants to supports.
  • Peg down strawberry runners.
  • Watch out for cabbage butterfly and caterpillar damage, remove any caterpillars and net if possible.

Late-season jobs

  • Sow green manure crops on vacant ground.
  • Start digging up main crop potatoes.