In the morning I fed everything with seaweed solution. The stunted tomatoes have purple stems, which is a sign of malnutrition / stress. I’m trying to buck them up, but I’ve also sowed some more seed as late backups.

• 2 x Roma
• 6 x Czech Bush

The allotment started the day like this. While I was waiting for the team to turn up, I tidied up the stones by the water butt, so the little perch is now straight and the bricks are keeping the grass at bay a bit. I did some weeding and found that round the back of the shed the field vole had been up and under the bag of leaves and had broken through the bag and dragged out a few leaves. Putting the tile back over the tunnel should stop that.

To further chase non-germinating seed, I’ve sown a new row of salad seed in Bed 8. This time I’ve used the other packet of seed, as it’s germinated in the same compost at home with no problem at all!

All of the turf has been stripped now. Levelling and grading tomorrow, filling in the bottom of the  sides of the raised beds. Since we’re not getting much rain, and the weather has been pretty hot, we’re abandoning the idea of turf and going to seed for all of it.