Tim had spoken to a chap called Steve about plot 156 for which he was currently the tenant. He had been trying to get rid of this plot because he already had plot 157. Tim mentioned that we would be interested. After a few phone calls between Roger (the site secretary), Steve, Tim and myself, the plot would be ours. We said to Roger that we would be willing to give up the plot below ours because we still hadn't worked on it by this point. We were still trying to finish plot 155!

What a scorcher! It was absolutely sweltering today where Tim and I met to get some canes and posts. We didn't get the latter. Nor did we succumb to the first England World Cup match. We had veg to grow!

The temperature in the greenhouse had rocketed to around 35°C, which was making the leaves of my treasured tomato plants a little crispy. We needed to get them out of there and fast! We dug the ground just below the strawberries in the area reserved for the fruit patch. Tomatoes are after all a fruit, so they are allowed to grow on in that area. We also started a bonfire to try and get rid of those dried out weeds. We dug some earth and I planted out some vine tomatoes, with 6-foot canes to tie them to. I buried a half-cut bottle beside the plants to allow the water to reach the roots directly.

Tim spent a long time watering the plot thoroughly. All these little things take up so much time. I planted out around 36 tomato plants today, so we have a total of 51! We have ten different varieties, however, so we should at least have an attractive-looking glut. Some courgettes are already getting fruit, the chard we sowed last week is sprouting and the Aurora and Tumbler varieties of tomatoes are starting to fruit.

Tim and I take turns to water the plot each day. We go up in the evening and give the plot a good soaking. Tim sometimes has Leanne to help him and I sometimes have Suey. Each time we come up there always seems to be a little surprise, whether there is a small tomato just forming or courgettes filling out. It's absolutely wonderful to go up to the plot and suddenly notice that after three days from sowing, the chard has suddenly germinated!

On Friday, I was given a little tour of Nigel's other plot and he had some sweetcorn growing already! I was really jealous. I always feel as though I am so impatient when growing things. I once ruined a monkey puzzle seed germinating because I was impatient and curious as to what it was doing in the compost (I ended up snapping the root off). Nigel then gave me a large handful of broad beans. I felt really guilty because the only thing I could offer him were weeds!

Roger, from the nearby plot, showed me his plants, which he has been fastidiously digging and de-weeding. His peas were COVERED in pods. Again, I felt the green-eyed monster in me. I began watering the plot and it wasn't long before Roger offered to help me out. He got a load of water from the trough and I watered the plot. We had a nice old chat and it was just lovely to be there. People on the allotment are so generous, whether they share their veg or their time. It's genuinely uplifting.

I could only stay up on the plot today until around 2pm and then I would have to leave Tim to it. Suey came up to the plot to help today as it was a day for weeding. The squash, sweetcorn, bean and pea patch was ever so weedy, so I started using my swiss oscillating hoe to give the weeds a good patch. Tim was up on the top patch, clearing the weeds from between the onions, carrots, shallots and garlic. Suey, meanwhile, was in the fruit patch, clearing the weeds between all the fruit bushes.

It was a hot day and we all worked very hard to ensure that the land was weed-free. We had a couple of little breaks to chat to Nigel and Roger and to also have a nice cup of tea and look around the plot. It's ever so nice to see all these things growing by the minute. The courgettes seem to be particularly good value because they have loads of fruit and keep on producing more!

Today, Tim and I hired a brush cutter strimmer. It took us back to when we first started our plot, cutting down all those brambles! Now, we were about to do it all again on our new plot. It was really exciting except that the motor of the strimmer fell off and I had to go and get a replacement. We had ever such good intentions as we had said that we would cut down the growth on Nigel's and Roger's plot. As the day progressed, however, we soon realised that our new plot was a much larger undertaking than previously expected. We were at least able to lend the strimmer to Nigel and Roger, who got their plots cut back towards the end of the day.

We had two fires going and also had some new neighbours. We have got Roger and Charlie on the plot below us (the plot that we never got round to digging) who also strimmed their inherited plot and burned their strimmings on our fire. Tim and I had a good old natter with them and then got back to work. Tim did all the strimming and I kept feeding the fires with the weeds, brambles and grasses that he was ploughing through (or "strimming through" but I keep overusing variations of the word “strim”). It was really hard work. The fire blazed hot and long so we chucked the willow stump on there to see if we could incinerate the blasted thing once and for all!

We finally finished at around 5:30pm and looked at what we had achieved. We just could not believe that we have now got so much land. When I first signed up for plot 155, Tim thought I was mad but after some hard for a few months we now have some vegetables to show for all our hard work and it's one of the most satisfying things I've ever experienced. Now we've got twice as much space and will be able to reap twice as much veg. It really does feel like quite an achievement.