JULY for me means fruit. Raspberries, black, white and red currants and they are all ripening up and getting ready to be made into jams, summer puddings or the odd sneaky ‘raspberry and blackcurrant daiquiri’ – obviously as a little treat after working hard in the plot.

You really cannot go wrong with blackcurrant jam. It’s the easiest jam to make and it sets!

Just boil them up with sugar (no water) and a good dose of lemon juice, that’s it.

There’s no need for all that pectin business, when you are using blackcurrants just keep it simple and it tastes wonderful.

Talking about keeping it simple. I solved the underground wasp nest situation. I fought nature with nature!

I totally forgot to tell you what I did.

So a quick recap - I found an underground wasp nest in one of my raised beds by pulling up a big clump of willow herb.

These were extremely angry wasps, so I basically legged it.

Anyway, the next day I went down the plot and they were still there flying in and out of the hole when I spotted a little slug slithering in and the wasps didn’t even seem to spot it, that’s when I had my eureka moment.

Slugs love paper and cardboard and wasps nests are basically paper!

So I went around my plot, picked as many slugs up as I could, and there were loads of them; then lobbed them all down the hole.

Next day, no nest, no wasps. However, I probably now have a mass of slugs in that raised bed all breeding away… I think I’ve turned into the women who ate the spider to kill the fly!

My allotment to do list:

Feed aubergine, courgettes, tomatoes, peppers and legumes with a high potash feed such as tomato feed

Check around the greenhouse or polytunnel everyday while you’re watering keeping an eye out for slugs and snails, with all this rain there are tonnes of them lurking just waiting to eat anything they can.

Give that compost heap a turn over but watch out for toads they love hiding in them.

If you have any allotment queries you can email: vixlot@outlook.com