I feel like I can barely call this gardening but my daughter and I dumped all her Halloween pumpkin remnants in a corner of the yard with good water and sun. The results have been good for supplemental school lessons.
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Serendipitous gardening 
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I had to trim about 15m of hedge today. I haven’t been to the gym in 2.5 months. I had to lift a bottle of water with 2 hands afterwards. It’s going to be hell tomorrow.
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There’s a running joke in my house that I’m obsessed with turnips (those who play Animal Crossing will know their rooty allure and hopes of profits), so for my birthday today I was presented with these by my son:
So in the ground they went!
Thoroughly watered, some fresh compost and lining my thyme and whatever-didn’t-grow next to it.
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Quite the turn-up for the books… 
(Not even a little bit sorry! )
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Neither am I, that’s grade A dad joke material there 
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No turnips to see here at all. I sold mine already this week and with a tidy profit thanks to the exchange 
But this year I harvested my rose (see her further up in the thread)
The rose itself doesn’t really smell of much but once dried the petals have become quite intense. Not yet sure what I want to do with them… probably a sirup, maybe I’ll try my hand at rose water or a liquor… any ideas?
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Turkish delight?
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You could make some rose oil. Infuse the petals in olive, sunflower or some other oil, then that oil you can turn into soaps, lotions, lip balms etc?
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In the midst of madness stacking upon madness, I find respite from the firehose of news of those-in-power-being-yet-worse-monsters by getting out in the garden. So much work to get it up and running, and today it looks like this:
At least the bare soil means it’s not full of weeds at this particular moment. Quickweed’s sprouting, though, so it’ll be full of those obnoxious things in a week or two if I’m not vigilant. Plus, all those planted seeds don’t look like much yet… but they will soon enough.
All three types of peas are now flowering, and the yellow-podded vines are officially taller than both kids. And there’s just enough chamomile volunteering between the rows to get a pot or two of tea when the rain comes later this week.
Outside the fence, the chives are in full bloom. More of a gimmick in the kitchen than anything else, but who can resist a dash of color?
And my favorite of the peonies - we have half a dozen around the house - are a Japanese variety with a forgotten name. They’re the “fried egg flowers” to my kids.
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You might have heard that we had some drought. it made my front lawn look like this:
Starting in January, we got rain. Voila:
Then in April, army worms and brutal aborists from the electricity distribution company:
As you see, I have installed a new garden seat on granite paving, and the works need to be replanted. Grass in front of the landing, of course. I’m thinking of prostrate thyme under the seat and common thyme on the small cutting behind it, then a row of lavenders behind that. My sister is obdurately resistant to the idea of there being seasons, and will doubtless want to plant this weekend.
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I went and picked the gooseberries today, it’s probably the best haul I’ve had off these bushes.
I’ve plans to make gooseberry jam and gooseberry and elderflower vodka.
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How many pea plants do you need to get a decent crop?
Not that many really. I’ll probably get at least 5 or 6 decent pods per plant, and they give you SO many seeds to plant, I never plant them all.
I’ll give you a pod per plant figure in a couple of weeks
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More than you’d think. Or do you not eat as many peas as my children? I plant twelve row-feet (a smidge less than 4 meters) of shelling peas every year, and we still supplement from the markets to gorge ourselves. That said, my three-year-old could happily subsist on peas and cucumbers alone.
Put the extras in soups! But, yeah, just the overlooked pods alone account for a boatload of dried peas every year. I don’t even have to try to save seed.
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