Borage And Bees

These are some photos from the allotment this afternoon. I was suprised that despite all the rain the plot was not as boggy as it used to be. The combination of plants, and dug over soil has improved the drainage. The vegetable plants are growing beautifully and the weeds are slowing up in their attempt to grow in my beds. I grew some Borage in pots and planted them with Cat between the Pea's and French Beans. The Bee's, wasps, and hoverflys were buzzing around the Borages blue flowers today.Bee's and Borage..

The flowers hang down so the Bees had to fly up then cling on upside down. Their is masses of Borage now. I need to buy an icecube tray to freeze some of the flowers in ice cubes to flavour squash drinks. I do not know what else to do with my mass of Borage plants, although I read you can eat the coarse leaves as a salad leaf, it was slightly cucumber-ish in flavour.
The poor French Beans are dwarfed by the Borage. I cut an alley between two rows of Borage to let the light in for the French Beans. I have more FB germinating now from a later planting.

This is the Pea/French Bean/Borage/Spinach bed. The Peas are to the right, the French Beans are in the middle and at the far left of the Borage. The flower buds are a spectacual mass of pendulous pink buds. The Blue flowers look like Tomato plant flowers except for the colouring.
I spent two and a half hours weeding and turning the soil around the plants to aid drainage. The rain had caused it to harden and cap off. Turning it with a fork causes the water to drain to the plant roots and not sit on the surface.
I picked two and a half pounds of Courgettes today. I need some recipie ideas of what to do with them..

The blue flower illuminated by the light of the cloudy day. It did not rain today.The pollinators have been busy at the allotment. Flowers are in bloom all around the site.

My Runner Bean plants have baby runners on now from recently pollinated scarlet flowers. The French Beans are starting to flower with delicate white flowers in the middle of the bee central Borage.

A Strawberry plant flower on the edge of the Courgette and Gem Squash bed.These plants need a permenant home in the Autumn.I want a large Strawberry bed, as picking them and eating them has been one of the highlights of the allotment
Growing plants that need pollination to grow the fruit/veg makes you more aware of the bee's, wasps, hoverflys and flys. All those insects I saw today that fly from plant to plant cross pollinating.The Barratt road allotments are a rich place for all the flying insects that seek nectar from flowers.