After a warm April the weather turned really nasty with heavy rain day after day. Most plot holders have some problems with waterlogged soil to some extent. Our own allotment was not too severely hit as we have built up the level of the plot by applying large quantities of horse stable manure which contains a large volume of wood shavings. The one problem that we did have was to lose a few potatoes and to have to clean up, cook and freeze some of our potatoes. Others have lost all their potatoes and the allotment secretary Robin has lost everything as the whole of his plot was under several inches of water. Picture shows what is left of Robin's cabbage plants after severe water damage to the roots.
Bill behind us lost all of his potatoes as his allotment is about nine inches lower than ours. He has got stuck in and barrowed in loads of horse manure to raise up the affected area and has rotovated it. Now he has got that done I don't think that he feels quite so despondant. My own feeling is that he could probably have done with adding in about twice as much manure to get the level up even further.
Our own allotment fared reasonably well and is now fairly tidy. Early in the year the plum tree had masses of blossom and everyone was saying what a bumper crop we would have if we didn't get a frost and sure enough we have a bumper crop. They should be ripe any day now. 
Other fruits are also looking good with brambles ripening with luscious black gloss you get with ripe fruit. The cut and come again lettuce has performed well this year providing us with lettuce whenever we wanted to cut some. It has regrown from the centre at an incredible pace, maybe down to the amount of rain we have had!
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