Allotment gardening

Today we come back from holiday and after unpacking and sorting out the house a bit, the whole family takes the short walk down the road to have a look at how the plot has faired. My parents have been watering it regularly and my mum also took it on herself to put some weedkiller on some of the weeds on a neighbouring overgrown plot as well as on a few of the thistles on mine. I find an empty packet of weedkiller in one of my compost bins and also notice that weedkiller has been put on some thistles right next to a strawberry plant that now looks to be suffering. Other than that, the tomato plants have turned into enormous bushes. It's unbelievable how they can have grown so much in two weeks - I can't even walk between the two rows. The squashes have begun to develop - three on one plant and the courgettes and growing nicely. A row of French beans that I planted just before we left have grown a foot tall. There are also obviously a lot of weeds too. My dad picked all the onions as he thought they were going bad. Unfortunately, the variety I planted don't keep so we now have a mountain of onions to eat our way through. Brambles have now begun reclaiming the onion bed but dad cleared the bind weed from around the compost bins. We pick a couple of courgettes and head for home, with me thinking about all the work I now need to crack on with to catch up. Maybe we shouldn't have a holiday next year.