The weather is quite variable for this time of the year. Hopefully the warm sunshine we had in April and May was not our summer.

I started cropping the first of my tomatoes on June 26 and now all the plants are in full production, definitely well worth waiting for.

They beat hands down shop-bought tomatoes as your home grown fruit is juicier and thin skinned a delight to eat.

Last October, I planted a bed of winter growing onion sets called Radar.

These sets were purchased from D.T. Brown from Newmarket and are planted in September until October while the soil is still warm.

The company said that come spring time, the sets come to life and grow to their full potential by early July which is six to eight weeks before seed sown onions.

I must confess that I was surprised when on the first week in July the onions measured 13 inches round their girth.

The bed was covered with enviro-mesh to prevent the birds pulling them up and also giving them some protection from the wind.

I have ordered another lot for planting this September and this season’s have been lifted and are now in the greenhouse to ripen the skin before being stored in net bags.

I also ordered some strawberry plants Malling Centenary for planting mid July and will crop next year.

One thing about gardening is that you are always planning ahead.

In the meantime, for this year all the hard work and preparation is completed and now is the time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

All that has to be done is watering and feeding and keeping the weeds under control.

In the large greenhouse, the tomatoes are now at six trusses per plant and I have enclosed a photograph of the plants (see above).

The pepper plants are now producing plenty of peppers as are also the cucumber plant, so considering a 12 week lock down I am more than satisfied.

In the small greenhouse the pot leeks are starting to put on weight and the carrots are also doing well.

Potatoes and leeks growing on the path outside are doing fine.

Down on the allotment at present all that I have growing are raspberries, rhubarb, leeks cauliflower, peas and swede.

About potatoes, as they start to come to maturity the plants produce flowers.

Some people remove these flowers other people do not.

I have never seen a farmer going round the fields removing them.

But a word of warning if you have children in your allotment or garden.

They may think that the small green berries that form on the flowers are edible.

They are not they are highly poisonous so I think

in these circumstances I would definitely remove the flowers.

I will close for now and wish you all every success in your garden.