Garden peas and peace
August 1, 2009 at 3:03 pm 4 comments
Life has been especially full over the past few weeks. My interesting but very busy job has been taking up more time than usual, and we’ve also been spending lots of weekend time enjoying local festivals. All this means less time at home. I’m sure it also makes your blog readers feel like you’ve dropped off the face of the planet (sorry!). Things are starting to equalize back to a more normal pace now, I think. At the very least a period of calm has settled in for the long weekend.
I’ve been harvesting the English peas growing along the side of our deck all during these past few weeks. Nothing says summer like the taste of garden fresh peas. What we have planted is equivalent to two or three rows in a standard vegetable garden. It yields a small bowl of peas to munch on as a snack everyday. The daily harvest has meant a few quiet minutes in the garden, even on the busiest days, plucking fresh peas from their vines in the evening when the day has cooled off. It’s been wonderful to sit for a few minutes on the deck and enjoy eating them while I water the tomatoes and the dog crunches on the empty pea pods. The tomatoes on our deck are growing in giant terracotta pots, which dry out quickly and demand near-daily watering. I’ve been nurturing those tomatoes since I planted them as seeds in late March, so I made time for that chore – there’s no way I’m going to let them dry up when we’re on the brink of enjoying a delicious tomato crop.
10 or 15 minutes spent in garden tending the plants and enjoying a couple of handfuls of freshly picked vegetables doesn’t seem like much, but it’s made a world of difference – my vegetable patch is the perfect antidote to frenzied days that are otherwise racing by way too quickly.
Entry filed under: Cooking, Eco, Gardening, Kitchen garden, Life, Local food. Tags: english peas, garden, garden therapy, Gardening, growing food, growing from seed, inner city garden, local, local food in Calgary, local organic food, organic, veggies, well-being, zone 3 garden.
1. Tatiana | August 17, 2009 at 1:37 pm
My peas are finally ready too – I’m so excited! And I have an absolute ton of green tomatoes, but not one is even close to large or red. Any hope for seeing them ripen outside this fall? I’m a first time gardener, and am worried as a mother hen.
2. nestandsparkle | August 18, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Tatiana, I wouldn’t worry about the tomatoes. Mine were green for a long time, too, but have turned the corner and now we have tons of ripe and almost ripe ones. Good luck and enjoy the fresh eats!
3. Tomatoes « Nest and Sparkle | February 16, 2011 at 8:16 pm
[...] therapy has been a central part of my ‘staying sane’ strategy for a number of years, but I’m still surprised at the sense of peace and well-being I [...]
4. Windowsill gardening « Nest and Sparkle | September 20, 2012 at 8:10 am
[...] a satisfying thing to grow a plant from a seed. The ritual of tending to plants brings me endless peace, and basil brings an extra reward. When I water the plants in the morning I brush up against the [...]