Easy as 1,2, Pea

Oh god that was a bad title. Sorry.

Purely for this post I've just spent a few minutes potting up some peas and taking pics. In fact, the post has taken longer than the potting.

People that know me are aware of my 'issues' with peas. I have similar problems allowing mushrooms, raw tomatoes and sweetcorn anywhere near my mouth. But last year I was bold and grew some peas with the intention of eating them. 

So in 7 photos you'll be witnessing what I failed to appreciate in 3 decades of my life and the journey I've just been on (surely a cue for Christina Aguilera in the background?). So it's not only fun. It's therapy.

Get out your compost

Peat free and formulated
for seed germination.
Apparently

Get out your pots and seeds

Glove not necessary, unless
you fear compost

Fill the pots with compost most of the way and make a thumb print for the seed. Drop in a pea. Take a photo.

Cover with a bit more compost, water and place in the sun, in grow house or on a window sill. In April, I think it's best if they have some protection from the elements in case of late frost/cold nights

After 2 and a half weeks

Planted 8 April in growhouse

After 7 and a half weeks

Planted 11 March.
The plants send out tough little string type things
that grip as tight as a toddler holding your little finger
on whatever is nearby. I used canes to help them out.

The green nuggets that await

Last year's chicharitos

I gave peas a cha...
no, sorry that's too corny

Technical problems

This blog is as fragile as an emerging seedling just as the rain has stopped and the slugs have woken.


I've lost my page on getting started and it won't allow me to create a new one. If this continues I may try and set up a blog elsewhere but in the meantime here's a summary of a beginner's guide to beginning:

I strongly believe that anyone can grow something, you just need the reason or motivation. Or be strong-armed into the deep end and left to swim.

For those in the final category, as I was, here are some armbands!

What you need

1.             Soil

2.             Water

3.             Sun

4.             Seed

This year's broad beans - March

Other things that help:

•          Commitment (once you get your first seedling, you'll feel guilty unless you care for it)

•          Energy (Plants don't grow themselves. Well, they do, but it takes your energy to give them the best chance of producing some tasty stuff)

•          Emotional backbone (No point getting all upset when the slug beats you to your courgettes)

•          Friends (The type that will happily listen to you drone on about soil pH and crop rotation because they want your broad beans, or even better the type that will donate seeds and plants)

•          No friends (Friends have a habit of inviting you places when you should be gardening)

 I'll follow this up with some more pics to demonstrate how easy potting can be.