Vegetable patch update - planting peas and broad bean flowers

The last time I featured my vegetable patch the broad beans were a foot high and starting to really enjoy my manured soil and romp away.  Since then the patch has received a new intake of occupants, some support has been required, and we have flowers!  And where we have flowers we should see beans so its all exciting.

The vegetable patch with two batches of peas in situ

Since putting in my first batch of broad beans my two sowings of peas also reached planting out stage so joined their bean buddies in the bed.  I sowed two types of pea; a sugar snap variety, and just a plain old pea.

I love the flashes of pink and purple at the base of each flower, I think they are
actually rather attractive just as flowers without the promise of impending beans

Last year I bought sugar snap peas ready grown from the garden centre but I didn't find it a terribly effective approach.  For one thing I had far too many plants, forty or more, and by the time I got them in, the roots were in a terrible tangle and I had to give up on fully separating them out and plant them in clumps.  This led to one hell of a knot later on and a real struggle to find the peas to pick.  So this year I have sown my own.  I only had about thirteen plants come up, so while this appears like I will have far less in the way of produce, it should all be far more manageable and I wont find huge old gnarled peas buried in thickets during picking time. 

My sugar snap pea of choice is Jessy, and I have sown two batches, one has already been in the patch a few weeks and the other is now approaching the point of planting out.  I am hoping this will give me a sustained pea season.  The other pea is Kelvedon Wonder and I have just the one batch at the second because space is a little limited.  Really sowing peas and beans from seed is so easy there isn't any excuse not do it, unless you can't get a certain variety of seed.

I particularly like the black spots that are only visible from the front

So I put the first batches of sugar snap and pea in a few weeks ago at the beginning of May, its pretty straightforward, dig hole, stuff in and cover so I wont go into detail.  They have grown on nicely, reaching about a foot tall. Peas are known for needing a little support in life through canes.  Being a little thrifty, last year the mother thought fuchsia sticks would suffice.  They did not.  The whole lot had devolved into an intertwined knot long before I finally got round to buying proper canes and sorting it out.  Not this year, canes already in hand I have already started staking and everything is under control.  My only slight problem with the peas is the writing wore off my labeling sticks and I can't tell the difference between the two types of peas.  Now that they have grown on a little more I think Im right in saying that the proper pea has darker, larger, leathery leaves.  But still not a hundred percent sure.

This variety seems particularly pinky in comparison to the one I grew last year
who knew the veg patch could be so pretty

I hadn't staked the broad beans as they have such thick and robust stems they give you the impression they can withstand life on their own.  And they can, until you get some exceptionally heavy rain like we did this week and then the whole lot come tumbling down like felled trees.  If not attended to quickly the stems fix bent over and they is no hope in getting them back upright, so I was out there this weekend getting the stakes in.  Its a little less attractive but it does keep everything in order.

The beans have progressed well since the top photo - the promise of beans
draws ever nearer 

The most exciting development so far is the first batch of broad beans have burst into flower.  I know the point of beans is to grow them for their produce, but I really like the flowers.  I think the colouring, white with a tinge of pink and purple and a great big black dot, is really attractive and more than worthy in their own right as flowers.  Of course I am still hoping they will turn into beans, but I am enjoying this stage.  I am making sure to give them plenty of water as Im now aware that beans are fond of a good drink.

Organised and freshly-staked beans, with a sneaky clematis in the back

So that's where I am up to at the moment, flowers, happy peas and I popped my second batch of broad beans in the other week as well.  I haven't seen any bees buzzing around the beans but hopefully they are doing their job behind my back and I am well on my way to a solid batch of broad beans.