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

[bookbook]

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

My plot is only 8m by 15m, we only have mini plots here.

We do have more fruit and veg in the garden though. DH also works as a horticultural lecturer so has a walled garden, several large greenhouse and an orchard. We get through a lot of vegetables but I keep forgetting that 4 out of 5 kids have left home.

YellowLawn. I've got tomatoes with hint of orange today so I hope to start picking next week. I've also got a teeny, tiny melon - very exciting.

Here you go Bookbook ; I originally found the recipe in Nigel Slater's book Tender (which I'd thoroughly recommend for gardeners who are cooks).

Set oven to 180C. Simmer 200g lentils until tender. Slice the marrow in half lengthways, scoop out the seedy bit, put both halves into a roasting tin, brush with olive oil and roast for 20 mins until tender. Slice an onion (or 2 large shallots), and 2 large cloves of garlic, soften in olive oil and add 6 peeled tomatoes (I cheated and used tinned) . Add some harissa (or other chilli sauce) and cook until tomatoes are softened. Drain the lentils and stir in. Tear up 2 handfuls of spinach/chard and stir in. Bring to boil, cover and leave until the greens are soft, adding water if necessary to stop drying out. Spoon the mix into the marrows, scatter with 2 tbsp grated parmesan and bake for 20 minutes.

It's basically the same as the version he gives here: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/sep/24/foodanddrink.recipes , though he adds garlic in with the shallots and puts some parmesan on top before the final baking, both of which I'd recommend.

Thanks Una :)

Wow, love the shallots picture. Mine haven't done nearly as well as those. But they were in the rubbish bit which needs about a ton of manure on it this autumn.
Didn't make it to the plot yesterday after all. Might get over there later on today if the weather is still nice to do a bit more picking.
My toms are stubbornly green. I reckon they're waiting until we go on holiday in a few week's time then they'll all ripen at once!

Evening!
nice dry day, but pretty breezy.
Went and sorted stuff this morning at the plot. Planted up the last of the winter cauliflowers, dug up some potatoes. The started on the mammoth task of clearing up in the fruit cage - weeded and took out all the escapee strawberries - the runners are everywhere - have to dig up a chunk in the strawberry bed too , but thats for another day. The squashes are taking over the world - the rain the other day has given them a turbo charge :)
Anyone know much about aubergines ?- mine are going beserk . I have about 12-15 set fruit growing well on each plant, with more coming by looks , and am dithering on whether I need to thin them or not - never had to bother before!

It's pouring here, so no plot for me this evening but the summer holidays have started . I will be able to do all those jobs I have been planning, moving the strawberry bed, starting the asparagus bed and really getting the shed under control. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but Ds2 'demanded' we grow iceberg lettuce. The seedlings have all germinated, hurrah!

Morning all, I haven't posted in a while as I've been really busy with end of term stuff. Now the holidays are here I'm looking forward to doing more work on the plot.
I've bought a new battery and charger for my cordless Black & Decker strimmer and it's working really well now. However, right at this moment I'm hiding in the shed watching rainwater running down the inside wall. Not good!

Hope the rain has stopped needmoretea, its unexpectedly clear here this morning ( southwest) although there looks like there is weather coming. Popped in to say thank you to those who gave me permission to pull first year enormous rhubarb - had lovely rhubarb crumble which is DH's favourite and has made him more zen about my attempts to try and grow food in bits of 'his' lawn. Just nipping out to pick tomatoes. I've got lots of colours including 'choclate vine' but actually for taste the mini red gardeners delight type ones are the nicest.

The rain was biblical here overnight, and my young french beans have taken a bit of a battering but fingers crossed they'll recover.

Carrots and spring onions just coming up. All my carrots seem to have come up in the same place though which is irritating, I hate having to thin things.

My potatoes which had looked like they were dying back seem to have had a second growth spurt. I might do some exploratory digging later.

I've also been looking at lean to greenhouses, I have a great spot for one. Would I get any use out of one before the autumn, can you extend the growing season of anything or should I just wait until next March?

Happy greenhouse half hour sorting out tomato cucumber jungle

we are having a day of sunshine & torrential rain today.
you can almost hear the plants growing.

Morning!
lovely harvest Cath Glad you are managing to convert your DH , and it was a good crumble . :)
I got given a couple of sticks of rhubarb from disgruntled DH when he was cutting the grass - it's flops over everywhere!
I spent a bit of time in the greenhouse this morning - taking off all the new flowers off the aubergines . Haven't had the courage to thin the fruit yet....!
My garlic is all nicely dried , so I sorted all those out ready for storage. Of course, I have lost which variety is which, even though I did keep them separate . So no working out which I may try to grow again - some is better than others, but all feel a bit small tbh
tiz - I think you would get the benefit now - there is quite a lot of extra growing at the end of the season - salads and herbs , and I use the greenhouse overwinter for sowing early broad beans, and storing bulbs and tubers too.
It has rained on and off all morning, but zoomed to the plot to pick some veg for tea - the brokali is just nicely getting going . ( The calabrese is finally showing heads growing too - I thought the slugs had done for them!) A handful of green beans too. NDN forced a cucumber on me too :)

Can I ask a PSB question- planted some at start of the season and they are large plants now but no sign of any broccoli florets- when do those turn up?

Cath it depends on the variety - anytime from September / October right up until February/March. The 'normal' is usually about January though
I grow 4 varieties , to spread the harvest , as well as Brokali ( which is really a cross ) because we love it so much :)

Does anyone have any good recipes for cucumbers please? I seem to have about 5 at the moment, now I've broken up I can't inflict them on my colleagues.

the only one I have done is courgette, cucumber and spinach soup . I botched it up from a few different recipes in truth ...it was really nice -
I used a potato in it as well for a bit of body.
I got given a cucumber today, and I already have the courgettes ( I picked 3 today, but managed to palm them off) so will have to do some myself :)

*Elephant tzatziki or bread and butter pickles which also can be made with courgettes.

In between rain showers I've managed to strim and cover my top bed with 3 rows of weed suppressant membrane. I've also moved a very big sheet of black plastic to cover a new spot to try to kill off some of the grass. Lots of frogs in the long grass but luckily none of them got strimmed.

I've got a load of cement roof tiles left over from having some work done and I was thinking of using them as plot/bed edging. What do you all think? The wooden edging just seems to rot very quickly.

moretea we have a bed in the garden edges with roof tiles, works just fine.

To tackle the courgette glut I have been experimenting with osmosis:
2kg of finely chopped courgettes can be reduced to 1.3kg if you sprinkle them with 2tbsp of salt. Yes you need to rinse well and squeeze out with a clean tea towel. Can then be used for chutney without oodles of water needing to be boiled off.
Sugar works as well, the cardamon muffins are unlike an courgette cake I have tasted!
Picked first outdoor tomato today, unreasonably excited.

NeedMoreTea I think that sounds like a good idea. I am looking for a material to replace the wood edging. The posts have rotten but I'm not sure whether pressure treated wood was used originally or not. Some of the edges have corrugated iron down them and that is still fine. Thank you for the recipe ideas. I am now down to 3 cucumbers, I think I'll try the soup first. I found a Delia recipe that sounds like Book's.

Evening!
agree Need - sounds like a plan!
Pest - the courgette cake I made the other day ( lemon drizzle) grated the courgette and was then dried out by wringing inside a teatowel - worked an absolute treat .
elephant - my go to is always soup - we eat a lot of it, and I freeze a lot. It is nice to just take something out for a meal that needs no prep .

DH noticed a puddle in the 2nd shed this morning while I was picking stuff. It turned lovely and sunny after lunch , so.... we went and re -felted the roof. It was on the list to do to be fair - we had the felt, the job was just brought forward. It was beautiful while we did it. Got home for tea, sat down and it has tipped it down since. So glad it got done and out of the way :)

is there a rule about harvesting cauliflower?
the first one has a nice head, maybe a bit smaller than I would like.
will it grow more if I leave it? or will it bolt?

wrt caterpillars I had a 'only in a garden' type moment yesterday. I was flicking of caterpillars from the leaves and a group of sperling (?) were picking them off the ground. less than a meter away from me.

Hello all

Roof tiles work well as edging, I used them in my old garden in a bed.

Been to plot this morning. Had a 2 hour session weeding my raised beds and dp spent an hour faffing with the strimmer. Sigh.

Harvested some baby spinich, chillis, courgettes and dp and ds went for a wander and came back with loads of wild blackberries so we picked some apples too. Apple and blackberry pie for tea!

Just about to make courgette and lemon cake with ds. And having courgette frittata later.