Mange Tout and Asparagus Peas - seem easy to grow

Here are some of our mange tout (also known as flat pea pods) which are now about a foot high. They are in my experience quite easy to grow. I usually start some in pots inside under a light or in a sunny kitchen window, and also sow some outdoors whilst transplanting, just as insurance. In the end they all seem to come up together and just need a bit of netting around the edge of their narrow bed as they get bigger, so they can cling on and grow upwards to their full height of about three or four feet. Since they have their own tendrils, you don't have to tie them anything, so that is a real timesaver.

I planted my usually reliable favourite seeds: the Oregon Sugar Pea Mange Tout which you can find in most garden centres I think.

This year I am also trying out a new plant called "Asparagus pea" which is actually not a pea, but a vetch (the alfalfa family), forming low, bushy plants. The red flowers are followed by small winged pods. You saute them whole in butter and they taste very much like asparagus, so I am told. I planted seeds for about 25 plants in root trainers and planted them out in two batches, last week and today. We'll see how they so in this blistering heat.

Steamed and served with rice, in a veggie soup, or spiced up in a stir fry - I am hoping these pods will be a sattvic, healthy and tasty source of green veg over the later summer - and a change from chard and spinach beet (called sak in India) which are always the ultra reliable mainstay.