Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 9 - Spring is sprung, its getting really busy!

[bookbook]

Well, the last thread filled up quickly - maybe due to the horrid weather . Its time to battle slugs, snails and weeds !
Last Thread HERE

Evening!
Good Grief Need - a knife! I live a very uneventful life . Just a thought - the strawberries underneath all the grass- is it worth shearing all the grass down just above the strawberrries, to give them a bit of light, and a possibility of a harvest?
Spotted - happy asa pig in ....
It has rained all day , and now getting windy. My sweetpeas have rather been straggling around the bottom of the canes too .

We too have had sideways rain. Wind was so strong it blew over the french bean cane frame . Fortunately it somehow managed to fall without ripping up the climbing bean plants or flattening the dwarf beans which were on the same bed. A lucky escape.

Does anyone have any experience of growing and pickling gherkins please? I have 10 plants but I dont know how prolific they are. Also this will be my first foray into pickling as oppose to jam making. Anyone got any good sweet pickle recipes please?

Possibly getting ahead of myself as I only planted them out yesterday!

Gnome would you believe I act have my favourite preserve book out? It's the Thane Prince one - she may make odd faces when she eats off the spoon in that now cancelled allotment prog, but by jove she has good recipes! I made this with full sized cucs, but it says use small or large.

It's been really windy here too. REALLY windy. I didn't actually tie in my newly planted beans, so the may be no now ex-beans. Or they may live in a new postcode.

Gnome - Spotted is ahead of me -:) I had to go and dig my book out. It is my bible - Marguerite Pattens Handbook of Jams, Preserves and Chutneys. I have done sweet pickled onions but not gherkins. She uses basic recipes, which you adapt. Here are the two relevant bits if of use (I tend to buy ready mixed pickling spices in a packet )
I will be saving that one of yours Spotted !

TheSpottedZebra thank you very much. I will take a look at her recipes. My personal favourite is Let's Preserve It by Beryl Wood. It has a lovely old fashioned feel to it. Unfortunately I seem to have lost my copy - it has probably been tidied away and will be discovered next time I empty out a cupboard (so that will be the next ice age).

it's miserable out there. very stormy and wet and cold.
hope my dh's 4-stemmed tomato holds up. and my dc's sunflowers, at least they are still in a sheltered place.

It's so windy! I don't want to look out of the window in the morning - I'm afraid my lovely plants will have all snapped in half

It has not stopped raining pretty much since about 9.30 this morning here . Tomorrow looking just the same, but very windy tomorrow night. I am hoping my wigwams are okay , at least the beans aren't top heavy yet!
Its all crossed fingers at the moment, isn't it. Wish I had put the bench in the shed......

Hope all the plots have made it through the night - pleased to report my bean frame is still standing! Very pleased with how it's all growing; looks like a proper veg patch! It makes such a difference to have good soil and a nice sunny site. Anybody got any good courgette recipes as I think we're on course for a glut!

quick dip in - DGS here , raining and doing Lego :)
I have a lot of courgette recipes - I will link later x

My favourite courgette recipe is the Delia Smith side dish with tomatoes, garlic and cheese. We have it as a side dish with far too many meals during the summer! Other than that, I just pile them into all dishes like spag Bol/chilli/casserole. Interested to hear of some more exciting things to try.

Our potatoes are looking very sad and drooped over I'm scared to look if they're damaged or just blown over. Hopefully they will perk up after the wind. I was expecting the tomatoes to have snapped, but they don't look like they've moved thankfully. Garden is full of branches and leaves from nearby trees though. Really rough winds.

booky's courgette cake/brownie recipe is a must!

It's also not stopped raining here. I'm working from home and am refusing to venture out unless I need to. I have had to rescue garden furniture from where it was blown across the garden, so not too hopeful re my poor, not tied-in planties.

Gnome that preserving book looks ace! I might try and find it in the library. I have decided decided that i can't buy any more cookbooks for a while and it to have way, way too many and rarely open them.

The one year we did have a courgette glut we made a lot of Delia's courgette soup where you simmer chopped courgette and onions, blend and then grate in a courgette at the end to give it texture and freshness. But most years we've had very poor harvests.

Oh, on preserving, I love Diana Henry's Salt, Sugar, Smoke which has some great jams, lots of homemade liqueurs and chutneys.

Una your plot looks glorious. And another tidy one! You all put me to shame.

I think I also made courgette and cheese muffins with a few children once which went down well, but let's just say, said children were not exactly fussy! Especially for something in the shape of a cupcake

Zebra, appearances are deceptive; the green bit to the left of the picture is a pile of twiggy stuff piled on the foundations of an old summer house and utterly overgrown with bindweed which I desperately need to get on and weedkill. Hopefully in a year or two there will be a lovely greenhouse instead but right now it's a tip! The trees behind are all tangled up with brambles, ivy and yet more bindweed too! But I'm very happy with the beds themselves :)

Hi everyone

OMG @ need hope you wore thick gloves! and lol @ urban fox roaming about with a knife. That reminds me of The Mighty Boosh crack fox....

Gnome I have a lovely sainsburys recipe for sweet pickled cucumbers which I'm guessing could be adapted for gherkins. I'll try to remember to dig it out (also to make it as it is great in the fridge for perking up summer salads when summer returns that is)

Is anyone else perversely happy about the rain? Less watering chores (although more slug watch I suppose...)

I am happy about the rain, but less happy about the wind, and the fact the local rabbits from the fields have chosen our garden to shelter!

This looks helpfully versatile.

Thank you bookbook that is very helpful as well.

Pickling is a whole new venture for me. clarabellski I like the sound of a sweet pickle recipe if you do get time.

I have given up hope of finding my preserve book any time soon and located a second hand copy on amazon.

Also happy about the rain but rather less so about the wind. My insurance gherkins now look like I have been flogging people with them!

UnaOfStormhold thank you!

Goodness i have missed a lot of plot action! That knife looks worrying Need - definitely best to report it just in case.

Very heavy rain here yesterday and again today with the winds building up to gale force later i think. I did dash up to the plot this morning to put a bag of grass clippings on the compost heap. Unsurprisingly i had the plot to myself. It was actually quite nice in the wild weather. My broad beans were bring battered a bit by the wind so i made a quick support for them with canes and string. Not much else to do today but i do have some absolutely enormous strawberries ripening nicely under their netting. They may be ready at the weekend...

Ahhh...We are seeming to avoid the winds up here (for a change). I hope your plots all survive!

I meant to say book, so much for waiting a couple of weeks - we ate a small harvest of broadbeans at the weekend in pasta, and we'll be harvesting more this week (for some broadbean and mint bruschette, yum!).

This week has also seen our first radish harvest which we'll use in this recipe that we've been making for years: www.popsugar.com/food/Chickpea-Veggie-Burger-Recipe-18003521 Don't skip the slaw - its the best bit!

Next week we'll probably start getting some ripe strawberries and possibly can lift our overwintered garlic (the foliage is just starting to fade).

Our beans, curcubits and sweet peas are slow as a week in the jail though...Far behind where they usually are (even the emergency garden centre purchases).

My goose erro