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