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benefit from extra water when in flower. This time is known as the 'critical watering period'.My colleague Anna also has an allotment and is very particular about critical watering periods. She's been talking about her peas all week, how the swelling pods

It's so hot I'm having to water my vegetable crops up to twice a day at the moment. Everyone on the allotment is desperately trying to keep the plants productive and, more to the point, alive.We're lucky to have taps dotted around the site, which

.It seems wrong, somehow, to water pots and containers in damp, chilly weather, but they do need the occasional water when conditions are dry. I don't have any pots at the allotment — I'd never be able to keep them watered in the height of summer — but I do

water and frozen too as it takes a good while for me to eat a season's corn. Paul doesn't like sweet corn - or so he informed me after we grew an enormous bed of it the year before last! This year we only grew half a bed so about 10 plants and that seems

and watering too often!It's all starting to make me think about next season and what my plot might have to offer. Okay the purple sprouting is underway and I've a few cabbages in the ground but not enough frankly. In my book you just can't have enough cabbages

out on sun-baked earth in the hot August sun.After a few weeks in the shed I took the onions home. Some of them were whoppers and were very heavy because of all water they had absorbed. At home, every consistently sunny day, I moved the onions from

them swiftly to their new home, firming the soil around the roots with my boot as I backfill the hole. I always water the roots thoroughly afterwards, although sometimes when it's raining I'm not sure it's necessary.

What a freezing start to 2009 it's been. It's absolutely perishing down here in Bath and must be almost unbearable further north, or east for that matter. The watering can outside my back door is solid with ice and even the curly kale is looking

It's been very dry lately, so I've had to water my crops on a daily basis. The poor plants need every drop they can get as my allotment has turned into a dustbowl.Despite the dry conditions, my strawberries have been fantastic this year. I've got

from drying out.Even though my soil is rich and silty, the hot period we had a few weeks ago obviously dried the soil out enough to create the perfect conditions for potato scab. It just goes to show how critical the critical watering period is.