Damn heatwave

We've had a heatwave here for the last week - temperatures due to hit 32C today - and we haven't had much rain at all over the last few weeks - due thunderstorms and heavy rain tomorrow.

At home, I've taken all the small seedlings out of the greenhouse - only peppers, tomatoes and a few spare plants are left inside. I'm hosing the whole lot down every day.

The outdoor veggies are suffering - spinach, some lettuce and various broccoli/calabrese have run to seed - some other lettuce and broccoli are still ok. Having a sprinkler set up semi-permanently definitely helps, as does using weed control sheeting under the brassicas (stops the ground drying out too quickly) . The sprinkler doesn't reach the fruit bed though, and some strawberry plants look like they've died.

The allotment is in very poor shape - I haven't been able to get up there as much as I wanted due to the arthritis, so weeds and heat have taken their toll. Sweetcorn has run to seed, not even 2ft tall. I've lost one of the cucumbers and the peas didn't come up. The raspberries seem to have dried out and strawberries look dead. Carrots and beetroot have been lost in the weeds. The pigeons have eaten most of the brassicas, including the ones I planted a week or so back - I did net them, but the netting fell over, leaving a gap for pigeons to get in. The foliage on the spuds has died back, so they can be dug up whenever I'm able to dig.

On the plus side, I've had a fairly good haul of fruit, mainly from the allotment - several tubs of gooseberries, 3 tubs of redurrants, a tub of raspberries and a tub of loganberries. I'll have plenty more loganberries from home. The raspberries on the allotment are summer fruiting varieties, while the raspberries at home are autumn fruiting. I also found a blackcurrant bush under the weeds on the allotment - there is fruit on it, so must clear that when I get a chance.

I was given 3 blueberry bushes recently - they are little more than twigs with a few leaves and are very dry so are on the kitchen windowsill to get some TLC - not sure when to plant them out yet, but I do have a patch to grow them in at home.

Not forgetting the plum trees, rhubarb, apple trees and elderberry trees, I should get loads more fruit for wine and crumbles and things ........