An excellent year. The blackcurrants enjoyed the thick manure mulch they received last autumn, washed around their roots by gallons of rain through the following six-odd months. They also grew unencumbered by the usual bindweed and horsetail as they now have planks forming a small raised bed around them, which have been kept scrupulously weeded….

It’s been a difficult year for stone fruit. The relentless rain followed by near drought seems to have done nice things to some people’s fruit but for me, on a hill, it’s been pretty disastrous. Since we’re going on a virtual tour of the allotment I’ll do this in several sections as we hit each…

In their second year, in a dedicated fruit cage that’s pretty much finished, now, made from old estate agent poles, second-hand chicken wire and batons out of a skip. Just one side to go; I hung a net over that side during bird season. I needn’t have bothered, to be honest. The birds showed little…