Big juicy Peas

At last a true success story amongst my legumes!  I have no complaints at all, they did exactly as promised on the packet, grew, produced massively fat pea pods which I ate and I ate a lot.

Being marrowfat in nature these start off looking fairly indistinguishable from the sugar snaps that were still going at the time so a few were picked prematurely.  Tough little skins though, not mistake worth making. Then suddenly without warning somebody’s been round with a bicycle pump and blown them all up like sausage balloons, huge peas swelling and straining against their green encasings.

Quantity?  I picked handfuls daily, big bagfuls in the bottom of the fridge keeping me happy for weeks.  I like my peas raw as part of a salad or straight from the shell; pop, split, gobble.  I don’t actually think one made it to being cooked, I fear it would kill the majority of the flavour and despite being marrowfat there was no way mine were being served mushed with chips.  I have yet to actually try a mushy pea so this is not so much snobbery as fear of the unknown.  Best to try from a chippy first I feel.  Taste?  Delicious, ‘Onward’ get my vote.

As expected I did encounter one or two unwelcome friends upon splitting the pod, generally sat atop a pea waving at me.  Horrible little things with black beady heads that look remarkably like maggots to my mind that quite turn the stomach and suddenly find me being terribly generous with my peas to others; “Here have one, watch for added protein!”

The stem of this pea is such a different beast to that of the sugar or broad, or even sweet, so thick and fleshy.  Once bent over due to poor staking these were nigh on impossible to straighten back up and instead had to be left to grow sideways for sections before coaxing new growth up, leading to very deformed looking plants.  So basically my vegetable patch was a thing of visual glory from start to finish, not.  Lovely juicy feel to the stems though.

I will definitely be growing peas again.  I think I bought another variety for next year so might really push the boat out and grow two varieties at once.  These peas are officially the first vegetable grown from seed that I am not at all disappointed with!  Its the small things in life that give me joy.

Memories of Summer

Seasons are changing.  Having worked hard on my holiday tan its now hidden under a thick jumper as I feel the cold.  The time for laying stretched out in the sun is gone, and instead we huddle up against the autumnal chill.

Generally when it is all stretched out superman style it is also rolling around squeaking

Looking thoroughly miserable, it was fine it just isn't very photogenic

It is sitting on the washing up bucket because it resolutely refuses to sit it’s posterior down on the cold patio stones and get a chilly backside.  Plastic being a poor conductor of heat is warmer than the stones, see the cat is smarter than you thought and was obviously listening in science class.

I miss the summer, with longer lighter evenings where the concept of an evening walk was still a possibility.  I don’t get home until quite late into the evening and it is already virtually dark.  I like going for a walk because it reminds you that there is more going on in the world than just work and your own life, or even humanity as a whole.  Sometimes I think its nice to just go and stand in a field of long grass, disregarded for the year and left to go fallow and think about nothing, watch the grass wave in the wind and the sun go down on the horizon.  This field is a pocket of peacefulness ironically right next to a busy viaduct that slices across the land and provides an incredible view from the top of the field.  Unfortunately it is impossible to photograph and capture the beauty that comes from its sheer enormous scale.  We had to fight through brambles to reach it where as when I did a photography project in it years ago it was a regularly used footpath, funny how fields can fall out of fashion.

These fields have always provided a respite for me from the strains of life.  I once laid down flat on the ground in a field of crop on a beautifully sunny warm day at harvest time, in an already flattened bit if your wondering and listened to the combine harvesters working away somewhere close.  I laid there about an hour, faintly wondering if the combine harvesters might suddenly roar up next to me, but mainly just incredibly peacefully.  I like to go back to that moment in my mind every so often when we are in the depths of winter hopping around freezing in pouring rain.

  

Sweet Sweet Peas

I don't appear to be able to construct anything that doesn't look terribly thrown together and haphazard which is so not the look I was going for

I had only two hopes for my sweet peas this year; quantity and variety and somehow neither of them I achieved!  That’s not to say I didn’t have any, there was a perfectly adequate steady supply that kept the vase on the kitchen windowsill permanently filled and the mother continuously irritated as they disintegrated every few days into the sink in a flurry of petals.  But I admit, I had higher hopes.  I hoped for great bush fulls and a supply so overwhelming I was giving them away to every Tom and Dick I came across.  Like my neighbours; they who like to torment me by literally growing thousands.  The man could actually go into business.  Not content with making me endure the sight of thousands over the fence in July they actually handed me an enormous bunch that sat in the kitchen laughing at my disappointment.  But I can’t deny it was very nice of them to give them to me, much as I would like to.

So onto the peas themselves: I grew four pots, five to six plants in each pot.  You would think that would be enough no?  Im always hanging over the fence having a good nosey at my neighbour’s technique.  He surrounds his plants with netting, presumably for the peas to intertwine through so obviously I followed suit but I have issues with this method.  General set up was bamboo cane for each individual plant, netting tied round outside, plants on inside.  However then they grow and all the flowers are trapped inside and you can’t get to them.  It seems to me that it would be a far better idea to plant the peas in a ring on the outside.  Last year I ruined my hands putting chicken wire round the plants at soil level to prevent mice but I abandoned that this year and yet my plants stayed intact.

A selection of the neighbour's vast quantities, with a couple of my own Lisa Marie's thrown in for luck.  Very nice but all very pink and purple

The mainstay of my stock this year, good old Lisa Marie.  A slightly more sophisticated colour I think you could say

I planted all the remaining seeds in my ‘Staffordshire Collection’ packet from Eagle Sweet Peas and despite there being ten varieties in the packet and one that I added, I only got five colours: red, pink, cream with pink, silver and plum and purple which only compounds my belief last year that a considerable amount of my seeds were duff.  Of all my plants 75% were the pack I bought individually; ‘Lisa Marie’ a plum on silver that I had quite liked but have now had my fill of.  Clearly if you are in the market for a reliable grower then that’s the one to go for.  Although less numerous than my neighbour’s, I like to think that the colours of mine were more distinctive and of course smelt divine; so at least thats something.

One problem I have really encountered this year with my sweet peas is greenfly, and by problem I mean serious problem.  Two of my pots were smothered, while the others had none.  I took to shaking each flower vigorously before it was allowed indoors, but even then there have been greenfly everywhere.  Just the other day one was taking a wander across the breadboard when I went to make a sandwich.  Many flowers did not survive this slightly rough approach but it was necessary.  I was sent this link on pesticide free gardening which has some interesting sprays you can make up to rid yourself of such irritants.  Apparently like vampires, aphids are not fond of garlic.  Clearly I have not tried them myself as I still have greenfly so I can’t say whether they work or not but worth a try next year I feel.

http://www.fix.com/blog/pesticide-free-gardening/

Might want to be a bit circumspect about giving this a good sniff, could end up with more than just a whole nostril full of scent

I finally pulled out my sweet pea plants last weekend as flower production had slowed right down.  As nice as the colours were, I am really looking forward to growing some different colours next year and will be keeping my beady eye out.  While buying a big packet is more cost effective it is fun to change the varieties up when you have put all the effort in of growing from seed.

My Broad Bean crop

I have spoken on here before of my overwhelming love for broad beans.  They are definitely vying for top place on my all time favourite vegetable list.  I would have been quite happy if broad beans had been coming out of my ears, sadly though my ears have remained resolutely broad bean free.  I had a crop, but it was disappointingly small after the success of my seedlings.

You get in there my dear and fertilise!  Surprisingly pretty I think you will agree.

My plants flowered nicely, I was never aware before of actually how attractive broad bean flowers are.  Again like the cucumber nobody be growing them for flowers but they did pep up my patch.  They have a delightful way of corkscrewing their way up the stem and the combination of black, fine lines and hint of pink combine to produce something rather delicate and feminine for what I would consider a fairly robust bean.  The bees loved them so we were fully fertilised.

Lots of baby beans

But less big beans..

This is where it all seemed to fall apart though.  Lots of mini pods formed and yet I did not seem to end up picking many mature ones.  I think the answer to this may lie in water.  I was unaware that broad beans like a lot of water while in flower to ensure a good crop.  My aunt did, as she like I is a keen broad bean-er but she did not disclose this valuable tit-bit of information until it was too late.  Thanks aunty.  So I have a feeling the majority of my beans shrivelled off.  That’s not to say I didn’t get any, I did and they were superb, but nobody was getting fat on that crop and considering the number of plants I would have expected a higher yield. 

I did pick more than 6 beans, these were just the first ones.  Six beans would officially count as a disaster I feel

Well known TV gardener in the UK Christine Walkden said on a radio programme earlier in the year that lots of people make the mistake of only doing one sowing of vegetables and that if you kept sowing you would get successive crops of the same vegetable.  Im pretty sure Christine knows her stuff so I followed her advice, and made a complete balls-up of it.  I sowed another batch of broad beans about a month after the first thinking they would take a while to get going and once the first peas were finished there would be space to plant them out.  The beans did not get this schedule of events, shot up in double quick time and started flowering in their cells and growing through the bottoms into the soil beneath when the mother randomly put them in the border for reasons unknown.  By the time I managed to get them in, they were basically a write off.

There is no need to beat about the bush: that is a cracking case of rust

A few weeks after planting this second batch I wandered down to check on progress to find a cracking case of broad bean rust spread through the whole lot.  Its funny because one minute there was nothing and the next it was a sea of orange.  While this doesn’t really affect the beans themselves I decided to cut my losses, pick what I could and yank the whole lot out.  It wasn’t pretty and my next batch of plants needed the space, luckily these have been far more successful!

So overall not a complete waste of time but plenty to improve upon for next year for higher returns.  

Not all cucumbers are born beautiful

As an amateur garden who is quite frankly making it up as I go, I obviously don’t always grow things in quite the right way.  While I can’t be going too wrong if my cucumber plants are producing cucumbers, there have been a few dodgy specimens and a real lull in production.

This one reached quite the length, and I like a nice big one.  But why the spines?!

While I would never consider myself in a position to lecture on how to grow cucumbers, one thing I have learnt is; water water water.  The fact that cucumbers are predominantly water seemed to have passed me by in the past and evidently I thought my cucumbers were able to find a water source other than what I give them.  Nipping down the corner shop and buy it bottled or something.  Not this year, I am all over the watering.  Come rain or shine I try and give them a good slosh every day, sometimes I really push the boat out and do it twice a day.  From my observations I believe ‘La Diva’ will only really support one cucumber at any one time, with smaller cucumbers shrivelling up and falling off as the water is needed in the main vessel.  Considering the size they will grow to, this is hardly surprising.  As more water appears to equate to more cucumbers one could be forgiven for believing that giving a good feed regularly might help the process along, but I read somewhere only to feed once every two weeks, so don’t be going overboard. The Gardener’s Kitchen website has some useful growing information if you are interested:

 http://gardenerskitchen.co.uk

Totally didn’t grow my cucumbers clockwise or pick off side shoots- oops! Oh well gives me room for improvement next year.  Unfortunately I only found this well into production but still useful.

This year has not been the best in term of volume of vegetable production because of our roof.  We had to have the whole thing taken off which involved having scaffolding right through where I keep my vegetable pots.  For three weeks they instead had to live in a rather dark corner of the patio rather than sunning themselves against the wall.  Then there were a couple of weeks of sudo-winter where I did actually break out my coat and funnily enough cucumbers came to a grinding halt.  They are back up and running now though so all is not lost.

And here we have beauty and the beast, the perfectly formed one is from a different variety that doesn't grow bulbous bits

As cucumbers on La Diva will grow to quite a size if you let them and I can’t resist leaving them and seeing how big they will grow which probably results in tougher skins and bigger seeds.  One grew to quite a length but also had a definite narrowing halfway along that the mother believes is when it had a little lack of water; clearly let the watering regime slip for a day or two there!  It gave it a bizarre perfect handle.  Another cucumber insisted on growing tucked away down the back of the pot out of the sunlight and unsurprisingly ended up being a very appetising shade of yellow.  That my friends is a cucumber that only a mother could love.  Luckily I try not to judge on appearances and I can confirm he was still tasty.

My cucumber with jaundice, don't you just want to dive in and slice him?!