Perfect Peas

Friday 10th June 2011

After a weeks absence from Southlands there were plenty of jobs that needed my attention. Despite Val's enthusiastic watering technique much of the garden was still very dry, and as a consequence of this some of the leafy crops were starting to bolt. I decided to cut my losses and pull it all up, once salad leaves start to flower they can turn bitter, and as everything else is growing with great gusto, the extra room will soon be used up. Then I pulled up what remained of the cabbages, which wasn't much thanks to those pesky pigeons, and popped some amaranthus seedlings in their place.

The runaway success this week has been the peas, the edible ones are getting some lovely pods, if they produce enough for everyone to eat one pod straight from the garden, then it will have been worth growing them. The sweetpeas have now produced their first flowers, so I cut them and placed the vase on the piano in the residents lounge, their scent is like distilled summer.

"Earth laughs in flower"

Ralph Waldo Emerson