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The beginning of the pea harvest is discovered and enjoyed. I herein discover a critical mistake of my own: failure to organize or distinguish the different types of pea plants! Thusly are the peas whose insides alone are edible confused and mingled with the peas whose outsides are edible. In future I will plan to differentiate the sugar snaps from the fill-the-bucket peas. In the meantime, it’s enjoyment through trial and error!

Little hands love little peas.

The seedlings are taking over the kitchen window!

I will be moving most of the plants outside soon. We have been planning to get a polytunnel for the plants, to protect them from the crows and to give them shelter from the winds. It will also help to maximize the warmth of the sun and extend the growing season into autumn. Until then, these plants will have to fend for themselves in the elements outdoors. Here’s to hoping they will survive and prosper.

Did a bit of garden planning today, planted some more, general survey of seeds.

I planted these salsify plants last year in hopes of growing some interesting new root vegetables to add to soup. I planted several in this bucket, which grew tall like a small field of grass. I read that one could pull up the roots at any time through the winter, which would make them ideal for soup. But, upon trying to uproot them, I found them to be impossible to remove from the ground. A tall field of grass, a thick bucket of roots.

So I gave up on them.

Then, this spring, after the whole winter and after trying (most unsuccessfully) to remove them, imagine my surprise when the remaining three plants suddenly flourished, grew twice as high as before, and sent out their purple flowers!

Perhaps the roots of these will soon be edible.

A brief update to post the tomato repot, bravely moving a few outdoors to see how they fare.

Also included a photo of the herb garden that has survived thus far through the winter, happily featuring sage, mint, lavender and bay.

It’s still too cold outside to move seedlings out, so they currently crowd the windowsill in the kitchen, soaking up all the warm sunny rays. As of yet they are still small and rather manageable. We plan to get a polytunnel, but for the time being, it’s nice to have the minor jungle crowding all the sunny sills.

As I only tried to grow Portuguese tomatoes last year, and we had a miserable September with hardly any heat at all, I’ve selected both Siberian and Irish breeds to try this year. I figure they might be better able to handle the Irish summer, and I’ll just have to hold off hope for the Portuguese ones until we have a warmer more systematic setup. I’ve definitely got a hunger for fresh garden tomatoes! Grow on, grow strong, little seedlings!

Planted another round of seeds and moved tomatoes and peppers into bigger pots. My success rate for sprouting seeds has significantly lessened compared to last year. I figure it is still early for some of them to sprout, as it has been an exceptionally cold March and April here in Ireland. We had two snow storms in March! Extraordinary.

I took better care to label my planted seeds this time around. The peas are potted and my plan is to line them along the back fence to fulfill a twofold purpose: one, to provide a bit of hedging privacy from the neighbors, and second, to provide a bit of easy support for the peas. We shall see how the experiment grows. I plan to continue planting seeds until at least the end of May. Hopefully we’ll have a warmer autumn this year.

We finally tied the knot!

One of the many great pleasures of living beside the sea is the joy of flotsam.

They make for great planters!

Here marks the beginning of my second year growing vegetables in Ireland: A feat to say the least, indeed. Last year I had great success with courgettes and carrots, and though I had grand visions of tomatoes, I sadly ended the season gathering buckets of rotting greens. I’m sure this blog will gladly give space to share many more reflections as I continue and build on my homesteading efforts. It is the hope that this amateur gardener’s efforts and blunders will provide the fuel and fodder to spur on conversation overseas regarding health and nutrition and to connect us with inspiration from Brent and Karen regarding recipes and awareness about just how vividly fresh fruit and vegetables can impact our health and specifically our visual lives.