June on the allotment

The first harvests, and accepting failure

I love June on the allotment. The summer harvest is beginning, and we no longer have to worry about frosts. Things are generally planted out, and my main jobs are weeding - lots and lots of weeding - and when it hasn't rained, watering to ensure nothing dries out.

For me, the little and often approach works well on the allotment: I pop up most mornings, and spend half an hour or so doing some jobs. This means I can stop the weeds taking over completely (although I can never get rid of them) and the task list doesn’t become too overwhelming.

A real ‘glimmer’ for me has been a friendly juvenile robin visiting me on the allotment each time I’m there. I think he has recently fledged and is feeling lonely. He doesn’t seem at all nervous, and comes really close while I’m weeding, greedily gobbling up the worms I unearth. He reminds me of a small child wanting attention, and I’m more than happy to give it to him! We have called him Scout.

So far this growing season, as always, there have been successes and failures. My broad beans are thriving now, and every day I’m harvesting basketfuls of delicious, fat pods, full of beans for my dinner. The onions look almost ready, and the peas my daughter planted are growing nicely, especially now I’ve hung a net for them to climb up.

The first strawberries and raspberries are ripe and these rarely make it home from the allotment, usually going straight in my mouth, or my daughter’s! The blackcurrants are getting there too, and I’m looking forward to picking them for jam and cordial.

I’ve got to say though, the list of failures seems longer than usual this year, possibly due to the varied weather we’ve had over the last month: wind, rain, hail, a heatwave… I was also away for a week in late May, and had to rely on my husband to water for me. Sadly, all of my cucumber plants perished during this time, leaving the frame I made for them looking empty and sad. I’m not all that surprised - cucumbers are known for being very fussy, and seem to need perfect conditions to do well, which they definitely haven’t had. I have now been given a few replacement seedlings by a kind friend, so I’m hoping they will do a bit better.

A failure that did take me by surprise was the courgettes and squash, which I’ve always found fairly easy to grow. While all but one squash are still alive, they seem to have shrunk since I planted them out - well after the last frost - and are looking a very weedy. I’ve given them all some plant food, and topped up the beds with extra compost to try and give them a boost. Maybe a bit of sun this week will help too, if I keep them well watered. A couple of leftover courgette seeds have now been chucked in the ground as an insurance policy, although who knows if they’ll actually have enough of the season left to get going!

I am trying to stay philosophical, and remember the old rhyme: ‘One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow.’ Nothing is going to grow well every year, and this is a great lesson for my perfectionist brain.

So what can you be doing in your allotment or veg patch right now?

As well as the endless weeding, other tasks I have on my list for this month are keeping the grass mown and tidy, and putting netting over my strawberries to stop any birds nibbling them! The leeks I have in seed trays at home are thickening up nicely, and when they get to the thickness of a pencil, they’ll be planted out on the plot for harvesting in the winter. I’ll make a large hole with a dibber, place the leek in the hole and water, without filling the hole back up with soil - encouraging the leek to expand and fill the space.

If you have spots to fill in your growing area, you could start some chard, or lettuce. You could even put some peas in now, and they should still have time to grow.

How is the season going on your allotment? Are your crops struggling with the varied weather, like mine? I'd love to know!

Also, a little bit of exciting news from me today - I’m in print! My essay, ‘My Love Letter to the Woods’ is featured in the new summer issue of Green Parent magazine, out now.

It tells the story of how an ancient woodland helped me through a difficult transition into motherhood, and has now become a special place for me and my daughter. Apart from here on substack, I’ve never had anything published before so this feels very exciting! Green Parent is one of my favourite magazines, and you can get hold of a print or digital copy of the latest issue here.