planting peas

This is a little corner of our front garden, just to the right as you look out of the living room window. The road goes uphill, so the neighbour's garden is a few feet higher than ours - this wall is the retaining wall of their garden. It's one of the sunniest spots in the garden, and I wanted to make sure I grew something here this year.

This evening I planted out some peas. They've been growing nicely on the windowsill, with a good view of their eventual home :) I'm told peas like 'twiggy sticks', with a preference for hazel (the twiggiest of all sticks, apparently), but these ones are going to have to put up with freshly cut unidentifiable bush from the back garden.

I'm expecting good things from these peas. Last year I planted them in the shade, and they all died. This year they're in the sun, they're stronger, and my fingers are all crossed. I even picked lots of stones out of the soil and everything. And I shan't be very impressed if I open the curtains tomorrow and find our slithery friends have been having a midnight feast...

Anyway, other garden news. The rhubarb is looking fabulous! I'm very much looking forward to jam and crumble in a few months time.

And the strawberries are doing well too - I'm considering putting straw round them this year, that seems to be the thing to do, and last year I had hardly any strawberries. Will straw help stop the slugs?? Worth an investigation I think. They've spread over quite a lot of the front garden anyway, so I'm expecting good things.
The fennel is nicely filling out in its little corner, next to the peas. We had the first cuttings in our stir fry tonight, and very tasty it was too. I want to experiment with fennel tea this year too.

All in all, the garden's looking pretty good at the minute (when you look at the individual elements, rather than the whole thing, that is!). Things are growing, I'm keeping track much better than I did last year, and so far (fingers crossed!) nothing has been eaten, except by us :) Let's hope I can keep on top of it!