Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 12! Plotmenters hoping for better weather

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Well, previous thread is nearly full, and I am busy the next couple of days, so thought I had better get this up and ready.
Thanks for the plot title Una
Everyone welcome to join in and share their experiences, tips, the woes and joys of growing their own .
Summer and harvests here we come ( and we''ll do our best to beat the pests)
Previous thread HERE

wrt to comfrey juice.
I have a (self seeding thug) very pretty white comfrey. bees love it and it's pretty, so it stays.
for the juice I use that and alkanet (another pretty thug) and borage (yet another thug)
I also drown bindweed in the bucket.

but careful handling it. you want to wear single use gloves or your hands will stink for about a week...

don't talk to me about borage - it seeds everywhere , but at least you can just pull it up when they are little, and leave the others. Never done anything but let the bees enjoy it , though I think it goes in Pimms?

you can ear borage flowers and fresh leaves, it quite 'herby'
it's from the same family as comfrey and alkanet I think, so great for feed 'juice'

My borage leaves are rather hairy - no way I'd eat them!
Self seeds v v happily here with me too.

Does comfrey grow in the shade?

I use Borage flowers in salads and freeze them in ice cubes - they look so pretty in a gin and tonic!
However, I would never knowingly plant Comfrey! It was a total and utter menace at my first allotment - self-seeded absolutely everywhere and was impossible to eradicate! I know you can get the variety that doesn't self-seed but I've honestly been put off the stuff! Spotted In my experience, it will grow anywhere and everywhere!

Uma Those slugs have done you a favour!

haha Hounds

Hounds I did buy the Bocking 14 which is supposed not to self seed but maybe you're right. About time the slimy blighters did me a good turn after all the delectable seedlings I have provided them with! I have planted borage too (which is doing nicely) and the bees will be very happy if it goes wild!

Some borage recipes: honest-food.net/the-courage-to-cook-with-borage/

Thanks everyone, some (stinky) food for thought. We don't have an allotment, it would be in our garden in an area quite isolated from everything else but I am a bit 'hmmm' about it now!

Great update Zebra, made me laugh!

I have a horrid duff corner of the garden, wouĺd some of that non invasive comfrey be a good idea for making plant food? I had borage in my last house, I was forever pulling its babies up, the thing was a triffid.

I have a wormery, which I was hoping to get plant food from, but they are still establishing, and two drips of feed won't go far. Love the stripy tiger worms though.

I went to my favourite garden center today, and was very restrained. Just 3x85p tomatoes and a small bay tree to replace the one my dogs weed on and killed. Got home and potted up all the remaining toms, and the 3 aubergines that grew. My greenhouse is full for the season now.

It's an 8x10' with home made (ie rickerty) staging in a u shape, plus two gro bag trays on the floor. Last year I built a cage up and over from one side to the other, which the cucumbers scramble over. I also have a 6x8' greenhouse, but this year it's full of crap, so out of service. I totally want a poly tunnel as well, to extend the growing season, but I am a long way north.

Spent an hour digging at the mound of soil, from digging out the terraces two years ago. It is thick with buttercups, docs and stones, so tough going. Plus I am sieving the soil to be sure of not spreading the horse tails and ground elder around.

Hello everyone. Coincidentally I was using some comfrey juice today on my squash and sweetcorn. It does really smell - DH commented immediately when I got back home, asking had I been spreading manure?
We had absolutely torrential downpours yesterday evening. I had de-cloched my little Crown Prince squash seedling and I was worrying that it would've been battered flat by the rain. But at the plot today it's still looking good and strong. I've taken the cloches off the other squashes too as they're getting a bit weak and leggy. My plot neighbours have pulled their garlic but it all had white rot - I pulled mine today and the first 2 bulbs had white rot so I was very disappointed. But the next 20 all seemed fine! I'm trying to cure them but I left them out in the sun which I think is a mistake? Tomorrow I'm going to be moving them into the shed on trays.
I also picked some broad beans, the crop looks really good and healthy but most of the pods still need to fatten up a bit.
This afternoon I managed to acquire another hosepipe which my children's school were throwing out - it had a few splits but I've duck taped them and am hoping it won't leak - will take it to the plot tomorrow for a tryout. It'll mean I can use the site's hosepipe with mine connected onto the end, & it'll now reach my water butts...
I've included photos of today's crop! The first of many I hope!

my dc are absolutely fascinated by comfrey juice!
they have their own fermentation bucket going...

my potatos are huge. almost 3ft. is that normal? (in beechgrove they look so small an neaf)

I think it depends on the variety Blue. Looking at other people's plots some potatoes are quite tall and some are compact with purple flowers. We've just had our first potatoes from the plot for dinner. They were from some spuds planted last year which I either didn't dig out properly or just decided to sprout this year. I only planted first earlies last year, they were two different varieties but very delicious.

no idea about the variety.
exchange with a neighbour. apparently a waxy variety.
white flowers

I have two varieties this year, Charlotte and Desiree. The desiree seem to have grown massive whilst I was away. I don't recall them being anywhere near as big last year when we also grew them. They're also well ahead of the Charlottes.

Hello- just been trying to read and catch up. Can’t face the comfrey juice- I clearly am not a true gardener . Too busy at work to get much done but should ease off a bit soon. Am planing to pot up tomatoes and cucumbers tomorrow - they finally started to grow. First peas have turned up but French bean plants are still tiny , strawberries are coming and gooseberries. Lots of things need netting or staking. I’ve got some cape gooseberries coming up - do i just treat them like a tomato?

I have gone overboard with potatoes this year as usual in pots: pentland javelin, international kidleys, charlottes, anya, pink fir apples, some purple ones (dd3 chose these), desiree and duke of yorks I think. Then in the old bath (front garden, yes, we're that family!) King edward, these are nearly 3' high just now, no flowers. The left over second lot of chatlottes and king edwards are in the ground in my veg plot. There are about 50 pots (biggest I can buy, about 14" at the top, collected over many years), and sacks on my terraces. So much for the pretty flowers I was going to put there.

A tub does us about one meal usually, depending on how much the slugs have had.

I have sugar snap peas about ready. And the chard my neighbour gave me looks good, the leaves are about 6" long. Is it cut and come again? Or can we have the outer leaves and leave the middles? I can't remember.

Hello all, lovely to read about your growing!
I'm just starting out and have 1 raided bed (2.5mx1m) ready to go, any tips on what to plant at this time?
I'm in Aberdeenshire so not the warmest and have a terrible rabbit problem so will probably stick to things that aren't to high to go under a netting lid

Well things are just starting to come on here in East Mids. We are in a very shady spot in woodland so that does affect harvesting times.

I have had three very large heads of romanesco (have decided to leave the plants in situ for now and see whether they produce second heads), we have potatoes everywhere - clearly poor harvesting last year since we haven't planted them other than in one raised bed. This year I'll make sure the DCs spend longer digging them all up properly since they're in the way - enormous and flowering.

Dug up a sample garlic yesterday and its puny. I have perhaps planted them too close together?

sweetcorn coming on well. 18 plants this year which I'm hoping helps with the pollenation. Courgettes flowering (although my mum snaffled three plants and so I don't have as many as planned). rhubarb is being attacked by slugs and snails (the snails don't seem put off even by the bright blue pellets) and so it isn't doing well at all and so I've planted three more so that next year we have enough. Ideally we'd have rhubarb crumble every week! Strawberries doing well but all still very green. I have 22 fruiting plants from one mother plant last year!

Peas don't like my garden at all - I suspect too shady. Beans are getting there but not the happiest either.

thatduck this is only my second year so I'm no expert but I'd probably visit some nurseries and car boot sales and buy some small plants at this time of year. You're a bit late to start most things from scratch. The good thing is that doing it that way you cut out a lot of the heartache!

Interested to know what other posters plans are for preserving and storing. I've got a dehydrator and am dehydrating and storing my spinach. I might love it. My family might like it but I don't want to inflict spinach based meals on them every night from now until Christmas!

I freeze my spinach and put it in with most things, bolognese, lasagne, chilli, curry etc. The DC don't seem to notice.

cloudtree that's great that your DCs will eat curry, lasagne, chilli etc, with or without spinach! My DCs are such awful eaters - anyone got a way of hiding spinach in a potato waffle or plain pasta?

I cook a lot of tomato based pasta sauces to use over the year- some just tomato/basil/shallots ( or onions) , but others I put in whatever I have - peppers/aubergines/spinach/cut up french beans, the big beans out of tough runners etc.
I make a lot of soups/casseroles.
I grow winter squashes which will store well into the new year.
I grow borlotti beans - I open freeze these, rather than dry them
Perpetual spinach - I make pesto and freeze into tablespoon amounts, so I can stir into a sauce/stir fry
Onions/shallots/garlic hung up in my garage .
I tried kale crisps done in the oven, but nobody was very keen ....
I make a lot of jam and pie fillings
Obviously freeze a lot too .

I've dehydrated my spinach and them crumbled it up and stored it in an jar with an oxygen absorber. I intend to add it to whatever as I go.
You could lie about what the green is but I'm not sure how successful that is.