Allotment diary: July 2025

Barry Cuff takes a look back at what happened on his Sturminster Newton plot last month

It was another very dry month with little rain, high temperatures and drying winds. The little rain we did have only amounted to around 0.6 of an inch. Water was in great demand across the allotment site, and we pumped from our 12 foot well most days to supply the tanks and troughs. Vegetables on our own plot were watered every day, including the maincrop potatoes. Some planting was held back until after the 0.3 inches of rain on the 20th. We have been picking tomatoes from the greenhouse most days, and we have lettuce available all through the month.

3rd – The haulm (the stalks or stems) was dying back on the Jazzy, Sagitta, Maris Bard and Charlotte potatoes.

4th – Removed three more onions with white rot. Harvested courgettes, beetroot and blackcurrants (Val made a blackcurrant pavlova!). Gave four rows of Desiree potatoes 40 litres of water per row.

6th – Hand weeding.

7th – Dug Maris Bard (good) and Charlotte potatoes (very good!). Prepared the ground for leeks – it’s currently very lumpy.

8th – Dug two rows of Jazzy potatoes (excellent). Helped strengthen and put in new supports under the water-holding tank. Cut haulm off Sagitta potatoes. Harvested peas, courgettes, beetroot, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Fed the strawberry plants.

9th – First big tomato harvest: Akron, St Pierre, Rainbow Blend, Santonio, Santa Victoria and Ailsa Craig. Planted out lettuce from a plug tray.

10th – Weeds looked stressed from lack of rain.

11th – Picked the first Nairobi snap peas and Carrouby de Maussane mangetout. Harvested French beans, peas and a few onions.

12th – Picked courgettes, gooseberries and blackcurrants. A very hot day (31°C).

13th – Stored garlic: now totally dry. Dug five Harry potatoes (a new variety to us – good, but we won’t grow it again). Picked a punnet of bird-sown cultivated blackberries from the hedge.

15th – Harvested peas, snap peas, mangetout, gherkins, French beans and our first outdoor cucumber. Sowed Sweet Williams and Wallflowers in trays for 2026.

16th – Planted out Rudolph and Claret purple sprouting broccoli from plug trays.

17th – Planted out two rows of Musselburgh leeks from pots. Sowed Palla Rossa radicchio in a plug tray.

18th – Hand weeding. Fed celeriac and strawberries. Harvested mangetout, snap peas, peas, gherkins, beetroot, onions and French beans. Had a big tomato and sweet pepper pick.

20th – 0.3 inches of rain! Sowed beetroot and carrot.

21st – Hand-weeded brassicas.

22nd – Planted out lettuce from a plug tray. Fed celeriac. Planted out Navona romanesco. Cut haulm on the four rows of Caledonian Rose potatoes (dying back). Harvested peas, snap peas, mangetout, gherkins, cucumber, beetroot and French beans.

23rd – Sowed Vitimo Chinese cabbage and the next batch of lettuce in plug trays.

24th – Removed cloches from the seven lines of brassicas, then hand-weeded, watered, sprayed for caterpillars and boron deficiency, and erected pigeon-proof netting. Large numbers of Large White butterflies on the wing.

26th – Harvested about 50 per cent of onions and laid them out in trays to dry. Picked cucumbers, gherkins and courgettes. Dug first good-sized carrots. Hand-weeded remaining onions.

27th – Dug two rows of Caledonian Rose potatoes – a good yield, but many were small due to drought.
We now need some decent rain for the remaining crops.