Astounded by Peas

Its Friday night, most people when they finish work would be enjoying a nice glass of wine and relaxing... except for the avid gardeners of Birmingham - I would guess that quite a few wandered over to the new Urban Veg garden at Winterbourne Botanical Gardens to have a nose at the new project.  Its an amazing space.  I can't wait to see how it develops and I had a lovely chat with the Birmingham Organic Group.

Such beautiful edible pea flowers.  Easy to see their relation to sweet peas

Arriving home in the dark and still with the glow of having seen such beautiful vegetable specimens I thought I'd wander over to my veg patch.  With the recent rain the patch is looking very lush and I'd weeded recently so it looks good - just lush lovely veg.  (We won't talk about the winter squash with pitifully small fruit for the moment!)

I was particularly impressed to see that the peas are very much alive and still producing.  Other things have performed poorly but I've never known a summer before when peas haven't died off in July.

The purple coloured pea pods in this picture are the HSL Purple Pods

Its especially the purple peas that don't seem to want to give up.

A delicious flavour to have at this time of the year when I wouldn't ever expect it.  Thank you for surprising me peas!

They are called purple pod and I first got hold of them from Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library. This is the second year I am growing them and this year they were from the seed I'd saved from last year.

I shouldn't be so surprised I suppose, the sweetpeas are still looking lovely and fresh in the autumn garden with their delicate fragrance.

Has any veg surprised you this season?

Radish Pods - HSL Rat Tail Radish

This year I've been experimenting with radish pods.

About 2 years ago, I had some radishes that went to seed, gave a stunning show of flowers and then grew seed pods which I couldn't resist trying.

They had a wonderful flavour - fresh like a garden pea but with that hint of peppery radish flavour.  It was a wonderful flavour - it soon became a regular in our salads.  The radish variety was just your common garden breakfast radish.

Now when radishes go to seed I don't worry - there's a wonderful treat to follow - both for the eyes (the beautiful radish flowers) and followed by those delicious pods.
 
Browsing through my Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library catalogue I've selected the rat tail radish on several occasions (a radish cultivated especially for their seed pods not their roots).  But they are too damn popular - I always get my second choice radishes instead.

Last summer I was volunteering at the Capital Growth Regent Park Allotment Garden and saw a magnificent specimen growing in their Heritage bed.  I asked about it and mentioned I'd never been able to get some seeds.  Amy kindly offered for me to help myself to the dried pods to save some seed.  And this is the first year I have had the opportunity to grow them.

Things taste sweeter when you've had to wait - and they taste wonderful with that peppery flavour, crisp freshness and a satisfying crunch.  Even my chilli addict boyfriend loves them.

They've grown brilliantly in our disappointing summer but they are a brassica after all which love the wet.

If you like radish I think you'll LOVE Rat Tail Radish!

Successes and poor performers in a challenging summer

Despite the long awaited sunshine we have even enjoying this week, we have had a rather challenging year garden wise so far this year with many commenting "what summer?"!

Which got me thinking - what is doing well in this cool, wet summer?

We are a good few weeks past the mid year mark so I thought now would be a good time to reflect.

So my stars of the patch so far are definitely all the beans (broad beans, peas, French beans) these were slow to start and were impacted by the lower than usual temperatures but perhaps not so much by the lack of sun and they would have certainly enjoyed all the rain once the temperature was warm enough.

Parsnips also are doing well, as are the Egyptian walking onions and the globe artichokes have been steady. Kai Lan is quite happy in these conditions, as are salad crops and the HSL rat tail radishes have done really well whilst adding a lovely floral display if you like that kind of thing!

Of the low performers it has to be the tenders - I am still waiting for the big luscious leaves of the squash plants and the flowers haven't made an appearance yet - that's the ones that escaped slug and snail fest! And I've been feeding those squash lots of worm tea feed but I think the rain washed most of it away! Beets,chard and carrots have been incredibly slow growing and I don't think I'm going to get a tomato glut this year!!

It will be interesting to see what the top performers will be in August after they've all settled after our current heat wave.

How are your veggies faring?