HOW did that happen? It’s August! Hopefully your plot is brimming with fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

My sweet peas have been fantastic this year and my dahlias are utterly amazing.

It’s so nice to go out and harvest dinner and come home with a full basket of goodies and flowers for the table too.

Mind you, you have to remember to give those dahlias a good shake as earwigs love to hid amongst the petals.

I caused a riot in our house the other day. I proudly placed my bouquet of freshly picked flowers on the dinner table and out dropped an earwig. Well, my daughter went mad, you’d have thought it was a giant rat running across the table not a tiny earwig.

It kind of put a dampener on my ‘allotment soup’, as everyone was staring at the vase expecting another ‘attack’ for the rest of dinner. But hey, let’s put that behind us for now.

August really is the time for bounty isn’t it?

Carrots, broccoli, spuds, beans, peas, you name it! Well, except for my beetroots, which for the second year in a row have been appalling. Maybe I’ve just lost the knack.

Naturally I am blaming the weather, it’s what all us allotmentiers do. I pulled a load up last weekend that had been in for months and were just tiny sprigs of leaves and nothing else. The chickens didn’t complain and dispatched them with great speed. Chickens really are the ultimate compost bins.

So I shall sow some lettuce and pop a couple of rows of rocket in their place and forget all about the failure of the dismal beetroot.

I am ever so gutted, one of my favourite side dishes is roasted beetroot in balsamic vinegar and garlic. Allotment life can be ever so cruel sometimes.

My allotment to do list:

Keep on top of the tomatoes, pinch out all side shoots and keep watering.

Sow more salad crops.

If you want fresh spuds for Christmas order on line now and get them in ASAP.

Keep picking peas, runners and French beans every day to keep them producing.

If you have an allotment query, you can email: vixlot@outlook.com