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black eye peas
Logan
Posts: 2,532
in Fruit & veg
Is it possible to grow black eye peas in this country?
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black eyed peas do not tolerate cold weather at all, but I'm sure I read somewhere that they can be raised in a polytunnel in the UK.
Hope you've got a big conservatory
They grow pretty big
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I love black eyed peas but they are so cheap to buy in Asian supermarkets I prefer to grow other more expensive or hard to find veg which requires less care. Round here that's fresh salad leaves, fresh beetroot, purple sprouting broccoli, cavolo nero and curly kale and Swiss chard.
Fresh fruit like strawberries and raspberries and blue berries are also prohibitively expensive and often imported so they're worth giving space and care too and can be grown chemical free at home.
Very interesting obelixx, have you read any of James Wong's books? He is a massive advocate of that kind of gardening and advises growing crops/varieties that cannot be bought in the shops but are easy to grow
However black eyed peas sound pretty exotic to me and would definitely be worth a try! Logan, you will have to let us know how it goes
I think many of us practise that type of gardening - in my small veg patch I concentrate on broad beans and runner beans, (neither of which are available in good condition in the shops) purple sprouting broccoli, Swiss chard, early carrots, heritage varieties of tomato and squash, the more unusual salad veg and dessert gooseberries etc.
For me there's no point in using my limited garden space to grow maincrop veg when I can get them of good quality and low price from the farm shop.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have a book of James Wong called Home grown revolution and I agree with the principles of what he says as has been outlined by G. archaeologist. However I disagree with some of the individual plants he eulogises such a the Goji berry. I grow fruit/veg that is:
1) Hard to find in shops e.g Tayberry, some salad leaves.
2) Easy to grow yet expensive in the shops, e.g Gooseberries, black currants
3) Much better fresh e.g most slad plants
4) tastier varieties can be home grown, Strawberries are the classic example
Exactly. Who needs Goji when you can grow equally healthy and fantastically tasty blackcurrants and blueberries? Salads from the shop just don't compare to those freshly picked from the garden.
For some reason, carrots don't grow in my soil so I'm going to try them in tubs of compost this year to see if they do better.