Ha-pea-ness is a rapidly growing plant

Regular visitors to the groweatgift.com will realise that I have a bit of an obsession with peas, because they’re so friendly and easy to look after. This photo is further proof that peas are brilliant. At only 4-5 weeks old*. they’ve already produced baby peapods. Since taking this photo, I’ve potted them on to reward them for their efforts with extra compost (also, I didn’t want to risk them getting hungry while I’m away**, and it seemed unfair to ask the person who’s watering my plants to pot them on if they looked like they need it.) so, fingers crossed, they’ll have more than one peapod apiece by the time I get back.

I genuinely didn’t think that peas would fruit (vegetable?) inside but now that they have, I’m seriously considering growing one as a houseplant because they’re pretty plants and there’s something rather lovely about being able to grow proper veg indoors. I have grown round carrots and radishes in windowboxes before to good effect but though peas would need to go outdoors. Which just goes to show that peas are the best vegetable ever.

OK, I admit it. I am a little obsessed.

*I don’t keep a planting diary but really should keep a record of when I plant things, not least so I can accurately label the photographs on this site. This gardening logbook has a nice vintage feel and this one looks like a really informative gardening guide. Alternatively, I may just opt for buying a pretty notebook and making my own personalised gardening logbook  with pockets in it for the seed packets so that I know exactly what I’ve planted (a friend keeps track of the wines they’ve enjoyed in a similar way, putting the soaked-off labels of wines they’ve enjoyed into a notebook), details of when I’ve planted seeds, when I’ve potted on, when I’ve fed and watered the plants and what stage cropping is expected – plus details of any attacks the plants face from slugs/aphids/birds, and how they respond to various treatments. If you’re just starting gardening, I’d strongly recommend you do the same – there’s a wonderfully informative article about creating a gardening notebook here and an amazing tutorial on making a fabulously stylish notebook cover from a tea tin though I suspect it’s slightly beyond my limited homecraft skill level.

** I’m currently travelling around the UK for various meetings but am still getting my gardening fix by introducing every person I stay with to gardening and/or nabbing their gardening ideas if they’re fellow gardening fans. So far, I’ve made strawberry hanging baskets for a friend, visited the amazing Wisley Garden Centre (though sadly didn’t have time to visit the RHS garden on the site too) and bought some lovely, mildly obscure herbs and leaves including Summer savoury, sorrel, salad burnett, namenia and lemon balm, along with some oriental radish (apparently you can eat the seed pods, ideally after pickling, for  spicy snack.) Best of all, I’ve persuaded my mum to share her secrets for building a shell grotto for growing ferns and herbs (photos to follow – she’s a very clever and creative woman).