Spare Bed - Food or Fun?

[PyreneesPlot]

Thanks to a nasty case of allium leaf miner I've lost all my 2016/17 leeks and have decided to not put any in this year either to try and control the population. This gives me an entire bed (6mX1.5m) free from about May or June which won't be needed until May next year. It is in the middle of the veg garden, currently under brassicas and was manured for the previous bean and peas.

So what would you do?

Choices I've come up with so far are:-

More tomatoes - we normally grow enough to keep us in fresh, dried and bottled all year but I do seem to have bought five additional seed varieties this year

Put it under phacelia for the year to keep the bees happy.

Grow annual flowers for pollinators/cutting (I am rubbish at pretty things).

Grow more cabbages/kale etc to make up for the lack of leeks (we have had to BUY veggies this winter )

Grow more summer veg, although we normally have more than enough.

Something else, something unusual?

(Climate very hot/dry/cold/stormy/wet/frosty/snowy - sometimes all in the same month )

Thanks lovelies.

[KevinM67]

A bowling alley ?

Edit: I meant boules or pétanque or whatever it's called.

[Nicos]

1.2 m of each of those 5 ideas?....

[Nicos]

How about a selection of squash varieties ...could they sprawl the edge of the bed?
Good for winter storage......

[PyreneesPlot]

It will become the corn and squash bed next, thanks Nicos - Mr PP gets a bit tired of the things, especially this year without the joy of leeks to break the monotony!!!

We play pétanque on the filter bed for the fosse, thanks Kevin - it is flatter and slopes less, although has just as many mole hills

I should have added, south facing slope

[Bigmallly]

Use it as an experimental bed for something you would not normally grow, if it doesn't work just dig it in.

[johnjohn]

Spare Bed - Food or Fun?

Tease! I thought it was an invitation with a choice of options......

[Penellype]

It sounds as though you could do with more winter veg, so maybe grow some quick maturing summer veg (salads?) then more brassicas.

I would use some of it for an experiment, perhaps something like a sweet potato under a cloche? And maybe house some of those extra tomatoes too?

[johnjohn]

There is another option which is to leave it fallow. May be not the most exciting option granted but arguably good for the bed.

[treepixie]

Could you use it to grow melons?

[rary]

If I had a spare bed I would go for fun though not sure OH would I would sow some annuals along with trying a veg that I wouldn't normally grow, and apart from the very hot and dry your weather sounds like an average day here

[cheops]

Give something back to nature as a thank you for past produce by giving your local bees a treat.

[mic]

Corn. Could have a proper little field of corn in that space. Just need to build a baseball stadium next to it after.

[Bren In Pots]

How about a mix some flowers with Tuscan kale growing through.

[mothhawk]

If you sow it for the bees, sow borage rather than phacelia. Because -

It flowers for longer, right up to the first frosts.

It fills the space faster and better with a much thicker ground coverage, and so will swamp out weed seedlings.

It's useful, flowers in salads, drinks etc and leaves are edible too (but cooked I guess as they are so hairy?).

Honey bees seem to prefer it to phacelia if they have the choice, possibly as the nice flat flowers give easier access to nectar.

It will have masses more individual flowers than phacelia.

The winter frosts will definitely kill it off for you, and it will decompose over winter, returning all that goodness to the soil. Phacelia can sometimes prove quite hardy, regrow, and have to be dug out (or in) the next season.

And finally, borage honey is to die for!