Peas, I mean.
Fresh peas right off the vine are one of my absolute favourite things in the world, and I'm happy to say that I'm finally able to raid my patch.
Incidentally, today's pointless photo is not of a pea vine. Just in case you were confused or anything.
For anyone out there who gardens and wonders how big a pea patch I plant, I'd say... oh, about a forty centimetre plot or so.
Yep. I live in an apartment. My garden's in pots.
I have four big pots, and an assortment of smaller planters that I use occasionally. This year (and probably for the next several) I seeded them rather than using bedding-out plants, because I was lucky enough to be given a whole whack of free seed packets. I think I mentioned that before.
When I planted in the spring I made one pot primarily vegetables, but for the others I threw a bunch of different semi-random things in to see what would decide to grow. I say semi-random because I did make an effort to try to use colours that somewhat complemented each other, but there wasn't exactly a huge amount of planning involved. I like a bit of randomness in my pots, really. I'm not a regimented gardener by any means.
Anyway, we've now hit the point where the early flowers are done, the late flowers are budding, and the peas are being eaten. Time for some garden evaluation, then. How does my garden grow?
Overall, not badly. I've got lots of green things doing what green things do, and when the cosmos blooms things will be really showy. The aforementioned peas are pretty healthy despite a pelting from a hailstorm a couple of weeks ago, and the mixed greens that are in the pot with them surprisingly haven't bolted yet. It's pretty hot on that balcony, and lettuce-y plants usually get scraggly in a hurry. I guess I'm using it fast enough this year to slow that down a little. I may even get one or two carrots out of that pot, but I never have much hope for carrots anyway. The conditions just aren't right.
In the flower world, the cosmos I mention above are going great guns, the nasturtiums and bachelor's buttons are in full bloom, the gypsophila's filling in the cracks nicely, and the coloured sunflowers should be amazing when it's their turn. There's some other stuff in there too, but you don't need an entire inventory.
Disappointments? Yeah, a couple. The germination on my scarlet runner beans was really awful, and that's really weird. They're usually one of my standbys. Same thing goes for the morning glories. One tiny little plant that doesn't seem to want to do anything, and I doubt very much that I'll see any flowers from it. Too bad. I usually look forward to them self-seeding, and the seed variety I had would've been pretty. Ah well. What can you do?
Hopefully, eat a few more peas when I get home. That'd be good.
Oh, and if anyone was curious as to how a noted pea lover can satisfy herself with just the harvest from a few plants in a pot, the answer is that she can't. That's why I make sure to have a good raid of my father's patch every time I go to visit him...
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