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.

2 July - delphinium

And the random dahlias given to me by a plotholder on the allotment, were flowering.

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

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.

10 July - yellow and green courgettes

The recently planted sweetcorn had made some progress, but about a month behind my neighbour's.

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.

12 July - ready for the kalettes

12 July - kalettes planted

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!

12 July - a harvested courgette

Monday 13 July

We picked some of the blueberries but there are loads more ripening.

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.

16 July - Minstead

16 July - Lyndhurst

16 July - Bracken at Acres Down

Saturday 18 July

We harvested a few courgettes and a rather tiny cucumber.

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!

John Austin

Hove, July 2026

Life on The Weald - June 2026

- and some distractions

Monday 1 June

With the arrival of summer, I planted out a yellow courgette and two patty pan squash plants that I had bought from the allotment plant sale, and surrounded them with a mulch of Strulch in the hope of keeping the slugs and snails away.

Tuesday 2 June

I continued the planting out of squashes, planting two green courgettes in the bed with the yellow one.  There were still some shallots in the bed which will soon be harvested.

2 June - courgettes

I cleared where beetroots had been grown last year and planted two butternut squash plants with slug collars and a bottle cloche in the hope of keeping slugs and snails away.

2 June - butternut squash

The blueberries were looking good but I need to cover them before the birds get them

2 June - blueberries

I also planted out some early summer purple sprouting broccoli under netting.

2 June - Early summer purple sprouting broccoli

Wednesday 3 June

I planted out two patty pan squash in the bed with the purple French beans. They should go well together as beans, squashes and sweetcorn are companion plants in the 3 sisters method which I had used last year.  Normally it would be climbing beans which attach themselves to the corn, aiding stability in strong winds.  Obviously they dwarf beans won't do this but they will add nitrogen to the soil which the corn and squashes need.

3 June - squashes and French beans

I had provided some canes for the tromboncinos to climb, but I think they may need some training if they are not to trail on the ground.

3 June - tromboncinos

Thursday 4 June

At home I sowed some Stringa Italian climbing French beans, as well as some more Cobra climbing French beans, and some dwarf purple Teepee French beans to fill any gaps in the ones growing outside.

Friday 5 June 

We visted Roedale to collect some woodchip and at home I potted up tarragon and red creeping thyme that I had bought.  

Saturday 6 June

I was planning to harvest the josta berries.  This was the first year I had grown them and I had noticed a plentiful supply a few days before. Sadly, there were now none! My neighbour suggested it was the wood pigeons that had consumed the lot.  A lesson for next year, to get some more nets.  We used the woodchip that we had acquired to renew and extend the pathways between beds.

Sunday 7 June 

Together, Sylvi and I began to clear one of the cages of weeds in readiness for the Kalettes.  We also received a gift of two sacks full of fresh horse manure from a neighbour, which I will leave for a while as it is probably too fresh to use on any current growing areas.   We did manage to pick a lot of broad beans.

Monday 8 June 

I potted on the lucky dip and mystery chillies acquired at the plant sale. I wasn't sure if "lucky dip"  was a variety or a mystery.  I looked it up and discovered it was the latter, so we will just have to wait and see what comes. The problem with mystery chillies is that there is no way of knowing how hot they are - until you taste them!

8 June - 3 lucky dip and one mystery chilli

I sowed some basil seeds around the tomatoes igrowing n the pots in the garden.  They are good growing companions as well as in the kitchen.

Tuesday 9 June 

The beans sown 5 days earlier have germinated

9 June - germinating beans

Wednesday 10 June

I had bought some Vietnamese coriander, Persicaria odorata|.   I was told that it tastes like coriander and can be used in cooking, that it is less likely than coriander to bolt, and that some people who can't eat real coriander, because they detect a soapy taste, can tolerate this.  We shall see. I had aso bought more thyme! One orange and the other red wine.  I potted all these into larger pots.

Thursday 11 June

We had some welcome heavy rain - and this would prove to be the last rain for a very long time as we were about to enter a period of high temperatures and severe droughts.

Friday 12 June

We lifted the Red Winter onions, Sadly most had bolted and produced flower stems (scapes).  The scapes can be removed and used in cooking - especially good in stir fries  - but the onions will not store well and will need to be used soon. Some of the onions had been attacked by pests, but the damage was only superficial.

12 June - red winter onion

12 June - red winter onions

Sylvi picked around 4kg of broad beans,and I put netting over the blueberries.

12 June - blueberries

I had a little peek to see how the early potatoes were doing and I will need to lift them soon.  They looked good with no pest damage.

12 June - First Early red Duke of York potatoes

Saturday 13 June

We cleared one of the broad bean beds where we will plant sweetcorn (currently small seedlings in pots at home) and direct sowed some Cobra climbing French beans in another.

We picked the last of the purple sprouting broccoli sown last year.

13 June - purple sprouting broccoli

Fortunately we are not expecting any visitors as the garden table is covered with red onions drying off and now available for entertaining!

13 June - red onions

13 June - red onions

Sylvi podded the broad beans which we had picked the day before and we prepared some of them for the freezer

13 June - broad beans ready for freezing

Sunday 14 June 

Sylvi carefully hand weeded and raked the bed for the Kalettes, which we then planted. We also removed weeds from the space between the Kalettes and the onion bed and laid cardboard, awaiting more woodchip.

The  bed where I had lifted the Red Winter onions is a partial sunken Hugel bed. Underneath are logs and twigs which were buried there a few years ago. The bed had a wooden surround which is now rotten. I had debated whether to renew the surrounds or just have beds with footpaths between. In the end I decided to buy a galvanised bed frame which would arrive soon. Sylvi started to hand weed the bed in preparation.  

We then picked more broad beans and the first crop of raspberries.

Monday 15 June

At home I planted 3 lupins (White, Blue and Yellow) in the raised bed around the dahlias.  Lupins like acidic to neutral soil so I added some ericaceous compost to the planting hole. I also planted a variety of daisy, Leucanthemum.

Tuesday 16 June

I weeded the Cobra beans and applied a layer of compost, but a lot had fallen victim to slugs/snails, so I will need to fill the gaps with the newly sown beans from home.

Back home, I planted a perennial delphinium (dark blue/purple) an echinacea (pink), and a rudbeckia Goldstein (yellow) in the dahlia bed; also some low growing border plants Bidens (yellow), verbena (deep red) and Sutera cabana (blue)

Wednesday 17 June

I lifted a few of the red Duke of York potatoes ......

17 June - First early red Duke of York potatoes

......and tied back the Jerusalem artichokes which were beginning to flop.

17 June - Jerusalem artichokes

Friday 19 June

As I stepped outside at 8.45am I was confronted with low visibility and cool air and the arrival of a sea Fret.  This occurs when warmer moist air moves over the relatively cooler North Sea causing the moisture in the air to condense, forming a fret, also known as haar in Scotland.  I was on my way to the GP surgery, where the sea fog was just as thick, but when I emerged twenty minutes later, the fret had gone and there was bright sunshine and a clear blue sky and a rapidly rising temperature - the beginning of the second heatwave and in some parts of the UK the hottest day of the year.

19 June - a sea Fret

The new galvanised bed was taking shape and Sylvi had removed as much of the bindweed as possible.  We put in a layer of cardboard covered with twigs and other organic matter, a sack of the horse manure given to us by a neighbour, some compost from the wormeries and finally a mixture of soil and compost.

19 June - new bed ready for compost and soil

Sunday 21 June

Far too hot during the day to do anything on the allotment; they said it was only 20C in Hove but it felt much hotter.  We decided to take a drive along the coast to Seaford, where at least there was a cooling breeze.

21 June - on the clifftop at Peacehaven

We did venture to the plot in the evening when we planted some Tagetes - French Marigold. Tagetes release a scent that repels pests and secrete thiophenes through their roots to fight harmful soil nematodes. They attract pollinators and also deter flying pests which attack brassicas. Sylvi harvested the last of the broad beans and cleared the bed . We got the hose out and gave all the beds a thorough soaking in anticipation of a continuing heatwave.

Monday 22 June

We picked the first ever crop of cherries from our patio cherry tree planted last year.

22 June - charries

Tuesday 23 June

The temperature soared to 26C in Hove and 30C+ in London, where a red weather warning had been issued as the temperature reached record levels across the UK and Europe.

Friday 26 June

We planted out two more butternut squash plants next to the others and two Crown Prince squash in one of the beds where broad beans had been growing.

26 June - Butternut squash

26 June - Crown Prince squash

Saturday 27 June

We planted out some of the sweetcorn in the bed with the Crown Prince squash - two of the three sisters together.

27 June - Crown Prince and sweetcorn

And I planted some Cobra plants in the gaps in the row of climbing beans.

 27 June Cobra climbing French beans

There were signs of the first blackfly, so I sprayed the beans witha mixture of soapy water, garlic and mustard oil.

Sunday 28 June

It was really too hot to be working on the allotment but I planted out the Italian climbing stringa beans.  I love saying the Italian for climbing beans - fagiola rampicante.

Monday 29 June

It seemed too hot to go to the plot during the day so I sowed some more Cobra at home as there were still gaps in the row.  In the evening I went to do some serious watering.  The first heatwave had started on 22 May and the second on 19 June.

when more records were broken, including that for hottest day during June when 38.0 °C (100.4 °F) was recorded on 26 June in Norfolk. It was also the fifth hottest day in the UK ever. The previous record for June of 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) was set in 1957 and repeated in 1976.

The month ended in sweltering heat; the ground is hard as rock and there seems no sign of a let-up nor any prediction of rain in the near future.  There is litle that can be done apart from early morning or evening watering.

John Austin

HOVE, June 2026

Life on The Weald - May 2026

Life on The Weald 

and other distractions - May 2026

Friday 1 May

I pottered about inthe garden, potting up kalettes sown earlier in trays to grow them on before planting out in June.

Saturday 2 May

Whilst emptying out the old compost from pots and containers, I came across the occasional peanut, still in its shell, obviously stored there by a squirrel, but was surprised to find a whole hen's egg!  

2 May - a mysterious find

I cracked it and it was still fresh!  I'm told that foxes often bury eggs for later but I had never come across one before.

2 May - that's cracked it!

I renewed the compost in some of the pots and planted up some tomatoes, putting some horticultural grit and a little bicarbonate of soda at the base of the planting hole.

2 May - Tomato ready for planting

2 May - preparing the planting hole

Sunday 3 May

Another day just pottering and tidying up and potting up the early summer sprouting broccoli seedlings

Monday 4 May

I  planted out the Cobra climbing French beans that has been sown in pots at home. Many of the directly sown ones has never appeared; I suspect the mice or squirrels had them.  Sadly many of those that had germinated had gone to feed the slugs and snails.   In an attempt to protect the ones I had just planted, I put down a mulch of Strulch.  I will also add some garlic to the spray I have prepared to combat blackfly on the broad beans and use this on the French beans too.

At home I added some acidanthera corms to the new flower bed in back garden.

Tuesday 5 May

At home, I planted lilies (tiger babies) and freesias to replace the Amazing Parrot and Brisbane tulips in the troughs in the front garden and added some Acidanthera to the square pot. Acidanthera, also known as Abyssinian gladiolus or peacock orchids grow to a height of app 1 metre and in mid summer should produce fragrant white flowers with a maroon or orange blodge.

Thursday 7 May

The Winter Red onions in both beds had bolted i.e thrown up flower scapes which sadly means they will probably not store well.

7 May - onions winter red 

7 May - winter red onions

The Cobra climbing French beans had survived so far, so perhaps the Strulch was working.

7 May

The potatoes were looking healthy but no sign of flowering yet

7 May -

Friday 8 May 

The tromboncino sown only 5 days earlier had germinated.

8 May - Tromboncino

It will be some time before the Tromboncino and courgettes are ready for the table buit we are picking a steady supply of broad beans.

 

8 May - freshly picked broad beans

At home, I planted more Acidanthera corms in a second square pot.  Acidanthera, also known as Abyssinian gladiolus or peacock orchids grow to a height of app 1 metre and in mid summer should produce fragrant white flowers with a maroon or orange blodge.

At home, I sowed some Teepee dwarf French beans in trays seed trays.

Thursday 14 May

Most of the tulips at home had now finished flowering so I lifted the Rasta Parrot and Fireworks from the troughs and replaced them with begonias and geraniums. I also planted geraniums in the containers in the back garden and sowed some Cobra climbing French beans in seed trays.  I repotted some Kashmiri chillies which had been given to me by the organic gardening group.

It was time to do some strimming around the beds at the plot and I constructed a bamboo "wigwam" in one of the vacant beds where I directly sowed some Cobra climbing French beans and planted some Teepee dwarf beans in another. We also planted out some more wild garlic under the apple tree.

Friday 15 May

Most of the Winter Red onions had grown flower scapes, so will probably not store well and they will need lifting soon.

15 May - Winter red onions

15 May - Winter red onions - flower scapes

The last of the Fireworks tulips that I had picked were still surviving.

15 May - Fireworks tulip

Saturday 16 May

I removed weeds from around my new galvanised bed, laid cardboard and woodchip.  There was a self seeded, and now established, chard plant just outside the bed which I decided to leave and to remove later after harvesting.

16 May - the new bed and self seeded chard

16 May - the new bed

The mangetout in the new bed had done well and it was time to pick them.

16 May - Mangetout

Monday 18-24 Monday 25 May

We were away in our campervan for a trip to the North East, visiting the Yorkshire Coast and then to see my son and family in Northumberland.  Whilst there I visited an old friend, Chris Mullin, to see the walled garden he had reclaimed on the Callaly Castle estate just south of the border with Scotland.

23 May - entering Chris's walled garden - Callaly Castle estate in background

And of course, I had to visit the estate allotments! 

More photos of our trip can be found at

There was really bad weather for the early part of our trip with strong winds, hail and heavy rain but at the tail end the sun cameout and we drove home on the hottest day of the year!

Tuesday 26 May

Fortunately all our plants at home had survived our absence, including the chillis that my neighbour, Tonino, had given me.

26 May - Yellow bonnet, scorpion and Marconi chillies

On the plot, there were peas to be harvested - a bit past their best but still delicious.

26 May - Meteor peas

Wednesday 27 May

After a period away, I was pleased to see that all crops had survived (and so had the weeds!) and ther was a plentiful harvest of radishes, broccoli, peas and broad beans.

27 May - the harvest

Friday 29 May

The self seeded Nigella - love-in-a-mist - had dominated the area around the pond and were very popular with the bees.

29 May - Nigella

29 May - Nigella

Friday/Saturday/Sunday 29-31 May

My granddaughter's 26th birthday and on Friday night family descended for a weekend of celebrations - and no work on the allotment!  The weather forecast says that the hot weather will continue with little prospect of rain.

John Austin

Hove, May 2026