Pea teepees

So, here we are, hurtling towards the end of April, sunglasses and factor 50 in one hand, umbrella and wellies in the other. I could take the easy route with this blog post and make some side-splitttingly ironic comment about the drought conditions and the current weather. But I won't.

Well, maybe just a little one? Just quickly?

*clears throat* "I'm glad the hosepipe ban is still on. I'd get dreadfully wet going out to water the garden otherwise" Boo, boom, tish!

Anyway, despite the monsoonal conditions of late, things are still growing in the suburban veg plot - and in the suburban veg greenhouse and the suburban veg front bedroom, aka the propagation facility.

The rain did refrain for long enough earlier in this week to allow me a quick walk around outside to review the current situation.
I have planted two varieties of peas so far - Meteor and Kelevedon Wonder. Both are reputed to cope with early sowing so hopefully they will be coping well with the return to more typical seasonal temperatures. I've come over all a bit rustic of late, so in place of a formal line of peas (that I usually struggle to suitably support, I've gone for some homegrown pea teepees. And by homegrown, I mean they've been constructed from rather large prunings from the strawberry tree and the forsythia bush. They look pretty attractive actually (she says modestly) and I've just got to hope now that the peas appreciate them enough to hang on.

Over in the greenhouse, the tomato seedlings are growing strongly and will need repotting sometime soon. I've got 3 strong seedlings of each variety: San Marzano (plum), Gartenperle (cherry) and St Pierre (salad).

The pear tree blossom is out in force on both the winter nellis and the conference pear trees. I think we've still got some cooked pear left in the freezer so I'll have to get that defrosted and cooked up in a tarte tatin to clear some space. Hopefully the wet weather won't affect the pollination of the pear trees too much. Wet weather can reduce pollination rates as, generally speaking, bees and other pollinating insects fly less when the weather is wet. Though the moment the sun comes out, I can usually spot plenty of fluffy bees hovering around the winter nellis tree.

Winter Nellis pear blossom

Conference pear blossom

The broad bean flowers are also proving popular with the local bees. And is it just me, or are they even louder than previous years? I've got 2 types of broad bean in flower - Sutton, which has a purple tinge to the outer petals (or tepals, or sepals... damn you, plant morphology module. I'm sure I was happier just thinking they were all petals) And my old reliable Claudia Aquadulce are looking as gorgeous as ever. I can almost taste my first broad bean risotto!

 What's flourishing in your garden this week?