Life on The Weald - July 2026
A third heatwave began on 4 July, with temperatures peaking at 35.5 °C (95.9 °F) in Wisley, Surrey, on 9 July. This marked the first year when temperatures have reached 35 °C (95 °F) in three separate months. The records for the most days reaching both 34 °C (93 °F) and 35 °C (95 °F) in a single year were also broken. A fourth, shorter heatwave began on 28 July, occurring alongside severely dry conditions which prompted the Environment Agency to declare a drought across more than half of England and all of Wales.
Fortunately, the temporary hosepipe ban didn't apply to our part of Southern Water so it was possible to water some of the beds, but there were often queues to get on to the water tap. Whenever I had the opportunity I filled the dipping tanks. Its laborious but filling watering cans from the tank and applying water to the base of the plants is a much more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly use of water. When spraying plants indiscriminately with a hosepipe up to 90% of the water can be lost to evaporation.
Thursday 2 July
The flowers in the garden were still looking good - especially the delphinium.
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| 2 July - delphinium |
And the random dahlias given to me by a plotholder on the allotment, were flowering.
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| 2 July - a dahlia |
Saturday 4 July
Despite the drought, the Kalettes that I thought had died were still alive and had produced some new growth. I potted up my home sown purple sprouting broccoli and also the newly arrived Kalettes plugs, which I had ordered online to replace the ones thought to be dead.
I also planted out some Italian climbing Stringa beans (also known as asparagus beans or yard long beans) and some purple Teepee dwarf French beans that I had grown from seed.
Today was the start of the third heatwave of the year
Sunday 5 July
Despite the heat Sylvi cleared the edge of the walk-in cage where bindweed and grass had invaded the netting and I tried to clear the inside of weeds. This is where I hope to plant purple sprouting broccoli.
Tuesday 7 July
In view of the intense heat, I planted out some of the chilli peppers from the greenhouse. The new raised bed was on top of a sunken Hugel bed
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| 7 July - chilli peppers |
Wednesday 8 July
It was far too hot for much work but I picked most of the onions and shallots. Sadly many of the onions had grown scapes - flower stalks - so they will not store well and the shallots were much smaller than usual, so I think I will pickle them.
Friday 10 July
I planted out a couple of cucumber plants that I had bought and harvested some yellow and green courgettes.
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| 10 July - yellow and green courgettes |
The recently planted sweetcorn had made some progress, but about a month behind my neighbour's.
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| 10 July - sweetcorn |
Sunday 12 July
I prepared the ground for the 6 Kalettes that I had bought. by lightly forking out the weeds. When planted, I covered them with a cloche to try to protect them from the pigeons.
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| 12 July - ready for the kalettes |
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| 12 July - kalettes planted |
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| 12 July - kalettes covered |
It was 29C! I moved the remaining peppers from the greenhouse and placed them outside still in their pots.
The courgettes need picking daily, otherwise they turn into marrows!
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| 12 July - a harvested courgette |
We picked some of the blueberries but there are loads more ripening.
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| 13 July - blueberries |
Tuesday 14 - Friday 17 July
We decided to take the Campervan for a run before our summer adventures and spent a few days in the New Forest - the heat wave continued! Thankfully there was shade in the Forest.
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| 16 July - Minstead |
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| 16 July - Lyndhurst |
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| 16 July - Bracken at Acres Down |
Saturday 18 July
We harvested a few courgettes and a rather tiny cucumber.
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| 18 July - Courgettes and a cucumber |
Sunday 19 July
Although rather late, I directly sowed some green dwarf French beans where onions had been growing and Sylvi picked 3 boxes of blueberries for the freezer.
Friday 24 July
I lifted some of the Charlotte potatoes which should have been lifted in June but we are still working our way through the Nicola, also a second early variety. The ground was very hard and dry, despite a lot of watering, as it had been several weeks since any rainfall.
Tuesday 28 July
A fourth, shorter heatwave began on 28 July, occurring alongside severely dry conditions which prompted the Environment Agency to declare a drought across more than half of England and all of Wales.
Wednesday 29 July
The dwarf French beans sown 10 days earlier had begun to appear, despite the drought conditions. Fortunately we don't have a hosepipe ban, and although I uually don't favour watering with a hose, I gave in and gave the bed a thorough soaking.
We have a house full of guests - my grandsons from Northumberland, my sister-in-law from Shefffield and we are expecting more at the weekend so the allotment will take a bit of a back seat!
