Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters busy into summer ! and loving James Wong

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Last thread has filled up so quickly! Thought I had better get one up and running before I get off to the plot.
Busy, busy people, just waiting for the harvests to start, fighting the bugs, slugs and weather :)
Last thread here
THREAD 9

Courgettes and feta do go well together. We use them raw quite a bit - they soak up flavours and dressings, raw shredded courgettes with peas, mint and feta is good.

I also sweat them slowly to a mush in a bit of butter and garlic and freeze in blocks to throw into tomato sauces etc later in the year.

Still boiling hot here, I want some cooler weather and rain .

Pest
clara - it was me saying things are a bit late
Well, its cooled and mizzling here WhoKnows - hope it gets to you soon , but I was going to pick blackcurrants , but its too damp now

That sounds delicious YellowLawn.

We have many courgettes but are enjoying being able to eat the youngest and most tender.

We have a couple of self set marrows so will be interested to see what they are like.

careful with selfseeded ones. if they taste bitter they are poisonous.
but hopefully yours will be fine.

We do something similar Yellow with courgette, tomato and cheese layered up, with garlic squeezed in between it all and cheese grated on top.

Our main issue is freezer space - we have none. We're waiting for electricity to be put in the shed so we can have a big freezer, as we just don't have the space for one in our weird kitchen. MIL has a barn filled with freezers and fridges - that's the goal

YellowLawn

Pinched from wiki
Members of the plant family Cucurbitacea, which includes zucchini/marrows, pumpkins and cucumbers, can contain toxins called cucurbitacins. These are chemically classified as steroids; they defend the plants from predators, and have a bitter taste to humans. Cultivated cucurbitaceae are bred for low levels of the toxin and are safe to eat. However, ornamental pumpkins can have high levels of cucurbitacins, and such ornamental plants can cross-fertilise edible cucurbitaceae – any such cross-fertilised seeds used by the gardener for growing food in the following season can therefore potentially produce bitter and toxic fruit. Also, dry weather conditions/irregular watering can stress the plant and favour the production of the toxin. The toxin is not destroyed by cooking. People with an impaired sense of taste (particularly among the elderly) should therefore ask a younger person to taste the zucchini for them.[14][15]
In August 2015, a 79-year-old German man and his wife ate a marrow grown by a neighbour. The couple noted the unusually bitter taste. Shortly afterwards they were both admitted to Heidenheim hospital, apparently with symptoms of a gastrointestinal infection. The wife, who had eaten a smaller portion, survived, while the man died. Toxicological analysis of the meal confirmed the presence of cucurbitacin.[16]

poisonous curcubits

I was reading about this yesterday yellow , made me wonder about bitter gourds. Which are yummy if cooked right.

That can happen after stress too - I had to chuck 3 cucumbers last year when I left the door open on the greenhouse on an unexpected cooler night - really bitter.
Still raining/drizzling on and off here, so just popped to pick a cabbage for tea , thats it. Just need to prick out my winter cauliflower seedlings - two lots, as the ones grazed by the snails have made a gallant comeback :)

I would be extremely surprised if the marrows had cross pollinated with ornamental gourds however thank you for the warning!

Got my Brussels netted yesterday, will need adjusting later as probably not quite enough growing room but I didn't have as much netting as i thought.

Carrots, spring onions and lambs lettuce sown yesterday.

Harvested some more french beans and courgettes - demand is currently nicely keeping place with supply here.

Fruit wise I've just picked a few wild strawberries and some rhubarb and I'm now tucking into mini pavlova

That looks delicious Tizwozliz We had the first wine berry dessert last night. It's not the first of the wine berries as they have been eaten by a little DD bird.

My new beds are now filled and planted, I've done it very randomly though and realise now that I should have put all the brassicas in the same one so I could net them.
I'm trying out planting stuff all over this year so I can see what grows best where.
Like tiz, I'm looking at vertical planters but was thinking that shelves with movable troughs on may be better so I can put strawberries on then first swap for peppers and tomatoes etc.

I have nothing to eat from the garden at the moment except peas. I was late planting everything.

Ouch, have just been out picking courgettes (planning to do some batch cooking of soup, muffins etc for the freezer - thanks for all the recipe inspiration!), including getting rid of a few that had gone rotten and/or were in difficult to reach places at the bottom of the plant. I have now got scratches all up my arm which have gone puffy and itchy :( Must remember to wear long sleeves next time!

Has anyone tried the James Wong salt water treatment for tomatoes? I am at green fruit stage so I'm intrigued to give it a try but worried about killing the plants.

Morning
Cool and rain forecast all day, but busy anyway, so no plot.
tiz - that is a thing of beauty :)
Your - you may just find that the pigeons and such won't find them, but keep an eye on cabbage whites ! ( mind you, I have barely seen any this year so far)
Una ouchy .
I'm not trying the James Wong thing, but talking to an old tomato grower, I am thinking of Epsom Salts as an extra feed - it supposed to make the tomatoes tastier - you can apply to the soil or as a foliar feed - with mine being in the greenhouse I think I'll mix it with my water in a can for the soil.

The mulberries are ripe and with the forecast of lots of rain DH and I were forced to stand in the garden and eat lots for breakfast. It has taken five years for the tree to fruit abundantly, well worth the wait.

I also have some saved squash seed gin , hopefully they will be good as the farmer I got them off only grows good eating squash. We had a discussion and decided any offspring of his squash might look a little unusual but should taste great as all potential parent plants are stunners.

Does anyone here grow garlic?

if so...has anyone taken cloves from one year and used them to grow next year's garlic? Any issues?

This is my second year growing from sets.

Garlic - I haven't done as I've never managed to grow lovely plump garlic. It's always been OK but didn't want to continue the trend of skinny garlic.

But I think if you can choose the nice ones - why not?

Yes. Every year.

If you sow plump garlic cloves, you get smaller but more cloves the next year. If you sow thinner cloves, you get less but fatter cloves the next year. It's an allium thing.

Really? So. I could sow my tiddlers and maybe get fatter ones?

nice soaking warm rain right now.
good stuff before the next heatwave it seems.
anyone know about sunflowers? someone at dc's school said to give them beer so they grow tall. (they are 5ft already). is that true or should I stick to comfrey juice

Lurker here. I've been growing several different garlic varieties for the last 10 years or so. (Just harvested around 50 bulbs of each last weekend in fact.) I've never heard Tentacle's thing - I just plant the biggest fattest cloves, and get nice big fat bulbs with large cloves . . .

I think you do need to start with varieties suited to the UK climate though - which means either spending quite a bit on starter stock, or taking a few years to bulk up.

Here's a few of my garlic - they're actually the ones that are a bit damaged so they've come into the kitchen to use straight away :) (And the bees enjoying a poppy just because I like the picture)

I've worked out what's going on with some of my PSB: it has bolted. Is it worth cutting the tops off or should I just pull out the ones that have gone?