David Lifton

Everything on the allotment is growing so well and it’s got a lot to do with the recent heatwave

Although we are into the middle of July with a good couple of months left of the growing season, this year has already been a far greater success for me. one element which has helped us gardeners has been the constant sunshine and consistent heat – two elements that really have plants racing. Aside from this obvious help, focusing on growing a better, smaller range of vegetables has seen me take home more than I could have hoped for. the raspberry canes have been inundating me with berries over the last three weeks. I’ve even had enough of a crop to harvest ready for meals later in the year. And that’s not counting the developing autumn-fruiting raspberries. After several years of time and loving care – all four of my raspberry beds have become fruit powerhouses. this is where growing your own saves money. When you consider that a punnet of fruit might be £2 in the supermarket – your locally produced equivalent almost gives you a profit. the observation I’ve made with my raspberries this year is how large the berries are on the canes that I manured. While redesigning and mulching the middle part of the allotment, I also added a small dose of horse manure. Fast-forward to harvest time, and I couldn’t believe just how much bigger these fed berries were compared with their cousins. With this in mind – I will be layering manure thickly over all four plots this autumn. In past growing years, my tomatoes haven’t come to much. Sunny, warm weather is what they need to produce above expectation – and the humid, damp years before only sought to help the blight spread. this year, as well as growing indoor plum tomatoes ‘Follia,’ I’ve also got the reputedly blight-resistant ‘Mountain Magic’ growing outside. on an inspection a couple of days ago, I counted a truss or two of fruit for each of my seven vines – which works out to be about 35 tomatoes, and they’ve barely even started. It’s still not too late to get those vital winter vegetables into the ground. Broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages are second-tonone when they come direct from your garden. Sow them direct into pre-watered soil and make sure this is kept moist throughout the germination period.