Although it’s brilliant to be able to nip down the allotment and pick up fresh fruit and veg for tea, there are one or two downsides. The biggest problem is ‘The Glut’ or, everything being ripe at the same time. This leaves you with a fridge full of soft fruit or a kitchen table loaded with onions that need to dry out for storage while it pours with rain outdoors.

July can be the month of ‘The Glut’ so here are a few tips on coping with, and prevention of (next year) yours.

• try making jam, preserves, chutney to store food, or bag it and freeze it

• sow seed in batches a couple of weeks apart and ripe food can be picked before the next lot is ready

• distribute your overspill (the ‘win friends’ approach) soft fruit seems particularly popular

• grow different varieties, lots of soft fruits have summer, or autumn fruiting varieties so pick a different type to the one you have to extend the time you pick fruit and avoid a glut

Just a few lines on my visit to this year’s show. There were a lot of large rocks and giant size pebbles at the show this year. Another trend seems to be more colourful plantings than the rather restrained green of last year. The best in show was the Telegraph Garden designed by Ulf Nordfjell and it was really a lovely thing to behold:

This modern small garden (’Nature Ascending’) also caught my eye:

One of the Courtyard gardens ‘Pottering in North Cumbria’ was one that I’d like to take home for the great plant selection and simple but effective design.

Once your seedlings have two or more pairs of leaves you can think about potting them on, that is to say, upgrading them into a bigger pot with more space for their roots to fill. I’ve just done this to some of my tomato plants. Remember to hold them by the leaves and not the stem, you can afford to have an accident and remove a leaf as the plant will probably recover, a crushed or broken stem is fatal for tiny plants.

Gently transfer to a pot with fresh compost, to help prevent disease spreading, and gently lower into pot and backfill with more compost to fill any gaps. I like to tap the pot on the table a few time to settle the compot into any air-pockets and then firm gently. Don’t forget to water them.

You can prop up any leggy plants with small canes (I have re-used chopsticks in the past with success) use string tied in a figure of 8 loop to cushion the stem against the support.

I have started to plant my potatoes at the allotment now that the weather has become milder and my seed potatoes have chitted. The potatoes in the picture are a maincrop variety called ‘Valor’.

Those green shoots will grow away in the soil when they are planted to just above their own depth. Because we haven’t totally finished with cold nights yet, you will need to watch the forecast and cover them up if frost is forecast. Apart from giving them a soaking every 7-10 days (more if they are in a pot) they are usually an easy crop to grow successfully.

Pests and diseases may trouble them from time-to-time but can often be avoided by growing a first or second-early variety that is harvested before the pest can get going, and before diseases like blight start to spread.

Seed of tomatoes, peppers, chillis, aubergines, pumpkins and courgettes can all be started off inside on a window-sill in pots at this time of year. I like small 7cm pots as you can fit lots into a tray and place them on a window-sill or on the table beside a bright window.

As your seeds germinate they will benefit from being shaded from really intense light (in my case this is an east-facing window so I keep the curtains drawn for as long as possible on very bright days). Feed your plants with a general food or tomato fertiliser every other week to keep them growing strongly. Turn the pots every few days if the seedlings begin to lean towards the light. You will probably need to pot some of them on into larger pots as they grow so plan how much space you’ll need indoors to fit them all in.

These plants will not be able to go outside permanently until the danger of frost is gone. At the start of May I usually put them outside on warm days and bring them in at night, then they can be gradually acclimatised to night-time temperatures by using a cold-frame or a mini green house before planting out into their final positions. Don’t rush the process, plants that aren’t hardened off properly will have their growth checked by the cold if planted outside suddenly. If you have a greenhouse you can use that to harden them off, or as their final position.

Here is a photo of my new head of pest control at the plot:

I think he must have a family because he takes back his finds to a nearby hedge before coming back to wait for me to dig around a bit more. Centipedes and spiders appear to be his favourite meals.

What a surprise on Saturday when I lifted the cover off the compost bin, a whole family of Slow-worms (Anguis fragilis) ! These reptiles are protected under the law because they are quite rare.

They look like snakes but are in fact lizards who have evolved to lose their legs.  They prefer to live just under the surface of the soil but at the allotment I usually find them under plastic sheeting or under the cover of the compost bin. They like to live in the compost bin because there are plenty of slugs there too, that they can predate. You can see why any gardener would welcome them because of what they prefer to eat.

It is an offence to disturb, move or harm these fellas, although I can’t imagine why anyone would want to.

Sometimes nature throws the gardener a curve-ball inb the shape of a weed or an insect that you’ve never seen before. Being slightly nerdy I always like to look them up so I can impress my friends with my insect knowledge.

The Natural History Museum website is good for photos and info on insects.

This commercial site has a good selection of photos to help you tell the difference between your plants and weeds.

At the allotments, things are stirring at ground level. The weeds are making a comeback after a cold spell last month. It won’t take them long to get a foothold so this is a good time to get out there and dig a few up. I like to pull or dig them out and then rake the surface to level it (on beds not yet in use) and then come backa week later to pull up any new weeds before I sow my seeds. This is the ’stale seedbed’ method that helps to get those first weeds out of the way, in theory you are supposed to get fewer of them around your crops later on.

I think it gives the vegetable seedlings a slightly better chance to grow away with less competition early on, and it’s worth trying if you have time.

PS. The ladybirds are emerging too, I seem to see them on the soil a lot. Perhaps they have flown down to warm up, or maybe they hibernate in the loose bits of soil, I’m not really sure. Either way protect them, they will be useful on your broad beans in about a month’s time when the bugs get started.

It’s not hard. Here is my recipe:

- Find a child who is bored, plenty of potential energy.

- Transfer to the allotment

- Fill one can with cold water from the standpipe tap

- Flourish several seed packets and offer to child, instructing to pick the one they prefer

- Stand well back as fingers get dirty making holes and poking seeds into soil

- Water well

- Write a label and poke into the soil, approximately where the seeds are located. retire for fizzy drinks and crisps in the shed or greenhouse.

Wait for about a week for shoots to appear, longer for food to grow and take care to gently weed around in the meantime. Congratulate yourself when they want to go back and do it again.

Even bigger congratulations if they’ll eat it once you pick it!