It has been a hard season on the Larkbourne allotments. After weeks with barely a proper downpour, plot-holders report thin harvests, bolting salad crops and a water butt network that ran dry long before August was out.
The site depends on a single standpipe near the gate, and the queue for a watering can became a running joke through the summer — though not, several growers admit, an especially funny one when the runner beans were wilting.
Lessons from a thirsty year
The allotment association is asking plot-holders to think ahead before next spring:
- Adding water storage where roofs and sheds allow
- Mulching beds heavily to hold what moisture there is
- Choosing more drought-tolerant varieties for the exposed upper plots
The association has also reopened talks with the parish council about a second standpipe, an idea that has drifted in and out of the minutes for years without ever quite arriving.
It was not all loss. Growers on the shadier lower rows reported some of their best soft fruit in seasons, and the swap table by the gate did a brisk trade in surplus courgettes — proof, if nothing else, that some things thrive whatever the sky does.
Related: more Valley Life · Saturday market trade
Further reading: What allotments are
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