The magic of peas

What an incredible weekend to be outside! I spent the better part of the last three days planting in the garden, seeding trays in the poly house, layering compost, and soaking up the warm rays of the sun. The forsythia is blooming, the buds have swelled on the weeping cherry, and the magnolia is getting ready to take my breath away in all its pink petalled splendor.

This is also the time of year that I think about the magic of peas. I am amazed at how a crinkly dry seed can burst into a beautiful leafy vine that climbs to over five feet tall and becomes covered with delicate flowers and edible pods. Now that the peas are in, I will check the bed every day for signs of pale green breaking through the surface of the soil. Once the peas have germinated and begun their long climb up the trellises, I can breath a sigh of relief knowing that in a few short months I will be enjoying the sweet, juicy, crisp peas, pods and all, picked right off the vine. I planted sugar snaps, an inch deep, about an inch apart all along the base of the trellis. First, I coated the seeds in garden innoculant, an powder that gives the peas the ability to convert nitrogen from the air into a usable form for the plant. This organically approved substance will help the peas provide their own fertilizer and may result in a more bountiful yield. Peas and beans are legumes, or nitrogen fixers, and generally benefit from the use of innoculant, but I believe they will be high yielding more because the soil is balanced and healthy than because they were planted with innoculant. I use it more out of habit than anything else and may not even bother next year.   

The outside temperatures are unusually warm which will help the peas to germinate quickly, but peas are cool season crops and will be happier growing in more seasonable weather. 

Garden chores this week:

Poly house seeding:- peppers, basil

Direct seed: hakurei salad turnips, b raab

Schedule:  wed a.m. til 11:00, friday