Peas in the potager

sweet peas planted outAn afternoon of planting out in the potager: not a proper crop, but some scented sweet peas. It’s a start. And so many of them had germinated that I ended up planting 32 sweet peas beside the bean poles.   And had so many left over I decided to plant them up against the tomato stakes as well.  They tend to flower and go over by late spring anyway, so they won’t crowd out the future tomato plants. Well that’s the plan.

I found a big fat slug on the outside of one of the root trainer pots as I was planting out. And it’s a reminder that all sorts of dangers await these dear little plants. Needless to say that particular slug isn’t going to do any harm. It’s in half and on the compost heap.sweet peas 1

sweet peas under tomatoesIn the potting shed things are warming up beautifully: I potted on swiss chard, sunflowers, cabbage, endless chives and spring onions, and sowed pumpkins, runner beans and climbing French beans.

For a change of scene I have kept at the mulching of the horse manure. The huge stack is slowly dwindling; but now that I have fed all the edibles, I have decided it was time to devote a bit of the compost to the flowers.

shade garden mulchingThe shade garden is a thirsty soil. Sucked dry by the huge chestnut tree above. So each plant has now been stacked with a few inches of rich compost around all sides.  I don’t have enough to smother the entire area; but it has come a long way from the dust bowl of last year.

It also gave me a chance to weed some of the worst of the unwanted plants.   And to see if anything is coming along. There are a few lilies poking out.   And the thalictrum has come up.  But amazingly I can see some sign of life on the anemanthele lessonias.   The poor grasses took quite a beating over the winter, but they are not entirely dead. That’s cause for joy.