Impossibly beautiful - the asparagus pea

Have you heard of it?
Almost certainly you won't have seen it in the supermarkets.
Apparently it's a pea plant, with pods that are eaten whole when about 3-5cm long and it tastes like asparagus. Ticking lots of boxes for me so far, plus it has lovely red flowers. So where's the catch? Is it difficult to grow? Is it, frankly, disgusting?
Certainly it's nothing new - my ancient copy of Peter Seabrook's great veg growing almanac refers to it as a standard veg alongside all other peas.
Curiosity and optimism won the day for me and I sowed some seeds in March.

Here is one today ready for planting out about 8 weeks after sowing - doesn't it look just gorgeous? Like a sort of botanical snowflake.
And this is what it should look like in a few weeks time.

It's now the perfect time to sow direct outdoors so why don't you give it a go? It likes an open sunny spot with light soil - perfect for growing in our Willow Planters - and it doesn't need much by way of support as it grows in a bushy form.
I'll tell you what it tastes like in due course.

Getting busy in the Tomato house

I find it almost impossible to throw a living plant away - even if it is a teeny weeny seedling, it's got potential. And if it hasn't got much potential then it's worse because it's a challenge. So as a consequence I soldier on with far too many and often feeble, seedlings in pots. Plus I don't thin out enough.
So this year I'm cutting right back on the number of seeds of each variety being sown.

Last weekend I sowed in (what was supposed to be) rows of 10 which however on second counting turned out to be rows of 11, the following:
Aubergine - Black Beauty
Sweet Pepper - California Wonder
Tomato - Gardeners Delight (2 rows)
Tomato - Sungold (1 row was in fact the entire pack of seeds)

All tamped down and labelled up - waiting to be finely riddled with John Innes Seedling compost to barely cover and into the Propagator they'll go.

Then had a bit of fun with our Eco-Pot Maker making some individual pots out of Saturdays paper - I was getting about about 8 large pots out of a single sheet so reckon I could make about 1400 large pots from a single paper - not bad value for money and they will all compost themselves into the ground! I planted up 11 (well I can't break the pattern now) Asparagus Pea seeds, making a neat and measurable little hole with the Dibblet. I've never grown this veg before but supposed to taste like a cross between, guess what - asparagus and peas.

Finally - I couldn't sign off without sharing a pic of our beautiful snowdrops - what an unexpected delight for us down south in March!

Oh - and another pic of a delicious side salad of picked leaves -just look at the variety and all over-wintering uncovered (except on the worst jack frosty nights). Just in case you were wondering - the leaf top centre is torn - not nibbled....