I have a lavender bush in full flower and thinking of cutting off the blossoms and drying them. For use in lavender shortbread, cakes and lcing.
Are all types of lavender safe to use the dried flowers of in this way? The original plant came from Lidl but I’ve long lost the label.
Thanks Wozza. I’ve starter pulling them up, I squezzed all the necks and any that are tipping over I’ve pulled up. Huge storm last night so they’ll all be muddy so I’ll pull the rest when it dries out a bit. So do you plant more now / in spring?
Huge hailstorm last night too that ravaged one of my gardens, the beans onions potatoes should pull through. Tomatoes for the most part have had it, cut to pieces.
Pumpkins wait and see, I’ve just sown a few more.
As for onions, I plant sets in the autumn for an early harvest with mixed results. I sow onion and leaks in the cellar under lights after Christmas through to February to plant out in late March early April, I also plant a few red and white onion sets for salads. When planted in the Spring, onions start to bulb up around solstice.
If you can find any sets give it a go you might get a late harvest? Or sow bulbing spring onions.
Sorry to hear this Wozza. If you cut them back will they not sprout again? I find my tomatoes are only too happy to send up fresh sideshoots from low down the stem, even when I pinch them out.
Yes some will others won’t I still have a few cherry tomatoes to plant I’ll replace the really bashed up ones. Shame as these were heirloom varieties and I wanted to keep some seeds.
I still have a few sets left so will give it a go. Thanks for the tip.
Sorry to hear about hail damage. We had some hail a few weeks ago but about a third of the tomatoes have since recovered.
My big problem is slugs. They are overwhelming, The chemin outside our house is plastered with grey slimy slugs patches where they are getting run over in huge numbers. They can overrun my frontline defence of copper mesh so I am resorting to plan B.
Plan B is to put out lots of small 5 cm pots between the plants and fill with a mixture of water/flour/sugar/yeast which has been allowed to ferment a bit. This acts like a magnet and the slugs seem to complete with each other to commit suicide despite the small size of the pots. Any stragglers left in the morning are gently pushed in to complete their eradication
I’ve never used them but have you thought of using nematodes?
@toryroo these are spring onions sown in April if you sow now you will have a crop and they store well but be small, good for winter slow cooking either whole or halved
Put them in balsamic vinegar and a touch of honey for the best pickled onions ever.
I’ll send this on to Mrs W. At the moment she’s experimenting with lacto fermentation.starting with beetroot.
Now that sounds interesting. I will move onto that when I have finished researching nematoedes.
Does she do carrots? If not here’s how: coarsely grate or chop into matchsticks enough carrots to fill a good sized jar, add 2% of their weight in salt, a clove or two of garlic chopped and a chilli ditto, toss it all about in a bowl for it to make some juice, pack into the jar weighed down if need be, put a lid on loosely and leave in a kitchen corner, in a couple of days it’ll ferment nicely. Put the jar(s) on a tray they tend to overflow as they ferment. Obviously you can zhuzz this up any way you like, the important bit is the 2% salt.
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Mik,
I just came across this & thought of you. One of the gardeners I follow on YT.
Thanks,
She will be, they’re still growing. Next she’ll be trying courgettes.
Hi Meggie,
How are the tomatoes doing?
Doing well. Will try and post photo later. Have started feeding once a week. Next week to be v hot so will need careful watering. Maybe morning and evening. Quite pleased so far. That smell too! Love it
Excellent link, thank you. I seem to be doing the right things (apart from the cardboard funnel). I disagree with the suggestion that traps need to be deep. I use little pots with yeasr based bait and in the morning sometimes find several expired slugs with heads inside but no room for their bodies.
I am struggling to find affordable nematodes for slugs. They are either out of stock or very expensive. Best I can find is €30 for a patch of garden 3M X 3M.
We discussed the pros and cons of using car tyres as planters. I have just harvested garlic and shallots. Some were grown well-spaced in a conventional raised bed and some much closer together in tyres. The later were 50 – 100% larger when picked. I can’t explain why as conditions were the same for both. I am guessing they benefited from more targeted watering.
Speaking of tyres, each tyre gets its own slug trap which seems to help in my current battle with them.
Some tomatoe pix. Finding getting the watering correct difficult. Several plants have leaf yellowing Also getting tall up to roof now. Should I be cutting tops off!
Wait a little longer… let the flowers dry a bit on the stalk then cut off and let fully dry. I hang mine inside a paperbag.
Doesnt really matter where the plant came from. As long as you have not used any pesticide its safe to use for cooking or baking.
Specially if its been growing in your own garden for a while.
Forgot photos as usual. Don’t know how to attach them….
