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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

Garin' is a good choice for smaller gardens. Blackcurrants grow on new wood. When I harvest the currants I also prune at the same time, cutting out a third of the plant each year.This tangy, mouth-watering recipe for blackcurrant cream is not only

.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

from 'Green Globe'.The best cultivar I have ever grown was 'Gros Vert De Laon', which I bought from a market in Normandy. Sadly, I left the plants on my last allotment, because it was too much effort to take everything with me. It was only afterwards

We've just been allocated more space on the allotment, so we now have a full sized plot. As well as planting many more spuds - which will keep the 'old man' happy - we can also plant the cutting garden my daughter always wanted. Despite

is the perfect time to start.It's too late to sow onion seed now, but you may find that friends still have some sets left over (my allotment neighbour gave me some surplus red onion sets - 'Red Baron' I think). I also bought white onions ('Marco' F1) from

, which I'll pass on to you now.In a nutshell, people who garden by the phases of the moon believe that its gravitational pull on the earth's water (i.e. tides), has a bearing on plant growth. They never plant anything when the moon is waning in the last

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