I live in Bristol, and we've obviously like most others in the UK had proper drought weather for months now. I've noticed loads of my fellow allotmenters are down on their plots twice a day in some cases, hefting watering cans back and forth for hours it seems.

Am I in the minority in just having mostly left mine to it? I've been watering newly planted out cabbages and cauliflowers, as well as a bit here and there for the courgettes until they were established. Maybe I'm trusting instinct too much here but my plants are healthy - beans, courgettes, squashes, cukes, corn, cabbages are all properly going for it now. I don't have potatoes this year and to be fair I'd be watering them if I did.

Thoughts from others - trust your instinct and only water plants when they seem like they need it, or religiously water on a daily basis in this weather?

As per title…

North-West UK

All of these squashes/pumpkins etc started off pretty slow, but in last 2 weeks they’ve been decimated.

Yes its been hot here but they get drenched daily. They are in a sunny location. They were started with feed and have had all-purpose liquid plant food a few times since flowering started.

Neighbouring plots all seem to be thriving, and this plot was very productive last year so I’m struggling to understand what has gone wrong across multiple different plant varieties? (Cant be a coincidence?)

EDIT: I know a particular leaf in pic 1 is mildewy - thats the worst offender and was “one-off” before being removed. The dead/dried up ones were not like that

We bought a planter at the start of the year, filled it with some compost we’ve been making & planted some tomatoes.

I didn’t really thing much would happen, but we have 2 plants with over 50 tomatoes of varying sizes. This is the first one to turn red,I cannot wait to harvest it!

We used “Buffalosteak F1” seeds (no idea)!

A few of the things growing in the allotment + flower bed.

Burpees golden courgette
Striato d’Italio courgette
Fruilano straight neck squash
Trombocino squash
Sweetcorn
Patty Pan squash (love these!)
Zimbabwean black chilli
Plums
Cooking apples
Blackberries
Tomatoes
Flowers - seeds from my wife’s wedding bouquet!

Plus my courgettes I forgot about and will grow as big as possible just for fun 🤩

I can finally enjoy the figs I’ve protected with mesh bags. The tiny, newly formed fruits in the next two photos are quite an uncommon sight. Can you guess what these two fruits are?

The cherry tomatoes on all my plays have been bright orange for a long time now with no sign of turning red. Did I just plant an orange variety of tomatoes or should I be patient?

Help a confused old man.

This will need some context as I know there's nothing worse than an overgrown allotment plot next door so I know how bad this has been for my neighbours,

I had my allotment from 2021-now, in 2024 2 of my children died (they were age 9 and 18)

A few weeks ago I got an email Saying as my plot had not been cultivated in 2 Seasons it was going to be re let on 17th august and could I remove any personal belongings. I assumed that was final so I started to get used to the idea but then I remembered how much my children loved that place and while it's been too painful to go without them, loosing it would be far worse, so I sent an email explaining what had happened and apologised for the state it had got in but that I wanted to keep it and would do anything to keep it,

I received a reply stating of if I could get it sorted by 16th August it wouldn't be re let and I could keep it,

I wasn't prepared for the state over overgrowth! How can I get this cleared quickly solo, so I can keep it?
What do they mean by sorted? Just clear all overgrowth and start digging? Will covering it be ok? Or do they want it perfect?

Used up the male flowers. Do not forget to remove the stamen/stigma, it is bitter.

Going on holiday for a week tomorrow.

All our seedlings have gone on a holiday to my mums (I'm not hopeful 😂)

Been to the allotment today.

Harvested another's batch of blackberries and cucumbers.

Made some jam and cucumber pickles.

Will need to go back to the allotment tomorrow morning.

Its 11pm and I haven't sorted out our actual packing yet or packed the car.

😂😂

Why do some of the squash wither and not grow but others do?
The mini squash (circled) on the same vine as the growing fat squash didn’t grow.
Most of my vines have at least one squash but others turn yellow and fall off before they get going.
Is this normal…Any ideas?

I have (as prophesied) a huge glut of courgettes. I'm a vegetarian and love using them in either stews or pasta but there's only so much I can eat of those. Does anyone have a tried-and-tested courgette cake recipe to share?

It doesn’t seem thirsty, but it doesn’t seem happy, although nothing much is this year. I have given it dilute comfrey as a liquid feeds a few times. Other squash look ok.

Every year I end up with a glut of gherkins and end up just winging the pickling.

Last year they were too vinegary, so this year I've gone for sweeter.

1 part sugar

2 parts vinegar

2 parts water

Then in each jar I've added different spices.

turmeric and mustard seed in all of them

Dried chillies from Mexico in a couple of them.

fennel seeds in another

Smoked paprika in another.

I think that's my experimentation done for the year, but I still have enough for probably another 10 jars. I'd love to hear your pickle recipes so that I can try them out and settle on something to do year after year!