Dawn wrote in mid July that she had already cropped peas, broad beans, sugarsnap peas, onions,carrots, early potatoes, salad potatoes.
Dawn is right to be proud of her achievement when you think that the plot was a wasteland when she took it over.
Dawn grew courgettes, butternut squash, cauliflower, sweetcorn, purple sprouting broccoli, salad onions, red onions, parsnips, swede, 5 types of potatoes, rhubarb, crab apples, runner beans, more peas, leeks, borage, sage, thyme, oregano, sunflowers, poached egg plants and other flowers. Fantastico!
A kiwi planted near the chair will be trained along it and up the side of the shed. Dawn has worked so hard, especially to keep the plants watered during the hose pipe ban, but really reaped the rewards.
Voles wreaked subterranean havoc in Joan’s garden. They ate the roots of a pumpkin plant,3 gazanias, 4 dahlias, 1 chrysanthemum and 2 nicotiana sylvestris in two weeks. The rodents set up a subterranean highway system which enables the nasty nibblers to nab your newly sown nuggets to gnash for their nosh. Joan disputed my theory about the fairies taking my pea seeds, citing as evidence the voles’ activity in reducing her apple tree to a shadow of what it might have been by devouring its roots. Well sad to say it seems that the voles overdid it and killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Joan sadly reported in June:
“The Bonsai Bramley has finally given up the fight. At the end of May all the leaves fell off and it blew over. The poor thing had hardly any roots”.
Joan lives in the southern part of the Netherlands and has a fantastic plot which needs to be protected from marauding Badgers who party outside her perimeter fence in the early hours of the morning. Joan sent me this photograph of her crop of Lady Cristl potatoes. There was no hose-pipe ban over there so an automatic drip system in the vegetable patch and greenhouse was very successful.
Jo and her friend took over this plot and clearing it wasn’t made any easier by the previous lessee covering some of the area with carpet. The resulting entangled mess was difficult to shift. Digging out wall to wall weeds is bad enough. 
Jo, her friend Moira and her husband Mark, and Jo's husband Malcolm put in a great effort clearing and planting, and made very impressive progress. .
I am delighted to say that I eventually met the owner of this fine work of art on our allotment. It brightens up everyone’s day who has the good fortune to see it. It’s not ‘listed’ although one or two of the other sheds do lean over a bit. Kerry and Perry increased the number of flowers over last winter.
When Andy and Ruby took this plot over it had been left fallow for twelve months. Ruby cleared the plot of weeds while Andy sat in the shed drinking tea. Marvellous.
and I’ll put it in next month’ s gallery)
This shows the vegetable plot as it was in 2003 soon after Lois and Reg took it on. All they grew that first year were a few runner beans.
This was taken on the 8 May 2006. The paths have been laid with straw around the raised beds for a 5 year veg rotation (spuds-chillies-aubergines - beans & peas - brassicas - the bed with the cloche framework of black conduit pipe Reg fitted - carrots-fennel-celeriac - aliums). Doesn't it look brilliant?
Catherine and Liz have only had their allotment for a month when this was taken. They are into recycling, the car tyres you can see are mint beds.
Catherine and Liz have put together a water catcher from ex building site posts, a discarded for sale sign, some scavenged bits of drain and a beer making bucket (thanks to the chaps at our local tip!) Catherine wrote: " It would be great to get hold of something bigger but it'll do while we continue our search!"
Kevin sent me photos of the damage to his plot
We thought it was rabbits and/or pheasants that caused the damage.
Bryan is another allotmenteer who likes exercise and eating the organic fruits of his labour. His plot is well organized and flourishing. Bryan added: "the vegetables in the 'baby cradle' were given to me by a friend from an Indian restaurant,and he said they are from Bangladesh, and they call them Dengha or Dughi."
Mark was so keen to get started that he has took on this nightmare. Mark obviously likes hard work, his description of it as very neglected is a bit understated. You could find something of value in there, Mark, like a fleet of cars.
Sue was still digging potatoes free of slug damage from this bed last November. Sue uses a comfrey mulch to discourage slugs and, like me loves nasturtiums, sunflowers and pot marigolds.