Last year I avidly followed Alys Fowler on
The Edible Gardener series on the Television. I watched her plant up dried peas bought cheaply from a supermarket to grow on and harvest as pea shoots. She made it look so easy. I gave it a go and it is easy!!! All you do is fill a container with compost, poke in as many dried peas as you can, water and leave to grow! In the past I have bought all types of peas in fancy gardening packets and never had any success. The peas I used for this experiment were bought from the dried goods aisle in the supermarket and meant to be used to soak and cook. I think the packet was less than 40 pence and I still have loads more peas to use! The proof of the pea shoots are shown in the photo above.
The plants are doing very well so far in the greenhouse. The cherry tomato plants are getting greener and filling out nicely. I have bought a bush variety so there will be no fiddly staking and pinching out for me this year.
In the above photo I am growing trailing petunias (in the baskets) and upright petunias (on shelf) and fuchsias all grown on from tiny plug plants. The sunflowers have been grown from seed.
I have also grown the pot marigold from seed and the lucky shamrock which I bought from the 99 pence store!
I can't wait for the shamrock to work its magic!
Out of the greenhouse and into the garden. The strawberries are beginning to develop. I can't wait until the berries turn red, ripe and juicy. I just hope I manage to get to them before the birds do. I am back up to the greenhouse now to do a bit of nurturing and give some words of encouragement! Later I hope to make some scones to accompany the pot of clotted cream and jar of strawberry jam that I have ready to consume and then I will settle down with a bit of cross-stitch to round off the day.
Those pea shoots look great - I might give that a go. Sounds like you have a good day ahead! Enjoy! Abby x
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect day. Now I want a greenhouse too, and more peas and some scones. It's raining here today so I think scones this afternoon will be an excellent idea. I think I'll plant more peas during the week too, I can never have enough of them!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your Sunday then!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could send you a bowl of my own strawberries, as they've already turned red!
xxx
Think I will give the peas ago too.
ReplyDeleteIt raining here, I think like you I will go and do some stitiching
Julie xxxxxxxxx
Well that sounds like a perfect Sunday to me. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great success with the peas, that is amazing, who would have thought dried peas from a supermarket could produce lovely pea plants like yours!
Vivienne x
I watched some of those programmes - I'm going to try the dried peas idea as I love pea shoots in salad. Hope you are having a lovely day:)
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the programme but it sounds interesting. I might give it a go. Not sure if I will be as lucky though as I don;t seem to have green fingers. x
ReplyDeleteOooh everything in your garden is looking very productive ... and tasty!
ReplyDeletexxx
I loved all your green and growing things in this post, and must try the pea shoots from dried peas idea - marvellous! Scones and jam followed by a bit of cross stitch sounds like a delightful afternoon to me! Have a great week, Simone.
ReplyDeleteHelen x
Those pea shoots look fantastic, what a great idea, I'll definately try some.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are having a really nice pottering about day, my favourite type!x
So many new green things coming to life..I planted some seeds the other day too. I'm making the best of it by digging out the soil where Kali likes to dig and putting loads of plant pots in it's place . Fingers crossed for flowers :-)
ReplyDeleteOh to have a greenhouse! I do envy you. And outdoors things are so much farther along in England than in the American midwest.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy every moment. These are precious times.
And today, the second Sunday in May, is Mothers Day here. So happy Mothers Day to you, sweet Simone.
Goodness your plants look so healthy,hope you have a bumper harvest.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you had bad experiences with school dinners too, I think they are must better these days though, thankfully.
Lisa x
Lovely! Isn't this time of the year the best! Can't wait to see how your garden progresses!
ReplyDeleteWow! Everything is coming on beautifully!
ReplyDeleteAm amazed at the dried pea thing - who would've thought the dried peas bought from the dried food section would actually germinate - you tend to think they are different somehow, but obvioulsy not!
Thanks for your comment, you made me laugh too as i did the same thing with a horrid old stair carpet once - Mr G said we didnt need a new one (even though it was old,a nasty pink and threadbare)then one day i nearly tripped on it, declared it dangerous and in my frustration i ripped the whole thing up! By the time he came home it was to bare stairs! So then we had to have a new carpet! Well it was just plain dangerous, but accountants are just SO mean!
I have a horrid navy one at this house that has its days numbered..........
Gill ;0