After a hot day we go down and water everything; it’s hard work lugging water from the pump in buckets and the chariot. If only there were a couple of reservoirs that could be fed by the pump, spread out nearer the outlying plots.

I picked 4 runner beans and a few little beetroot as thinnings. Only one of the beetroot is actually red, the others are white. The white ones in the multicoloured pack appear to be doing best. The thinnings certainly taste like beetroot, but are a little bitter.

One of the plum tomato plants at the front was looking particularly poorly, with no fruit forthcoming, so I pulled it up in an effort to protect the other plants a little.

The pumpkin plants are definitely looking bigger every time I see them, but are still not running off in every direction as they should be.

After discussions with people at the party about how much hard work this all is, I’m already thinking ahead to autumn/winter and the step of piling compost onto the soil and covering it all up for winter and letting the worms help me out.