English Podded Peas

Mixed Bed, June 2,2015

      Back in February I bought a little 8 ounce container of fresh, shelled English peas.  A much enjoyed extra in February.  Maybe twelve or more peas had stubby extensions that appeared to be roots starting to form in the peas.  So of course I saved those peas to go in dirt in cell packs.  And whoopee, they sprouted and made little pea plants.
      In March, space was at a premium to stuff holding on over the winter, so I put the plants in this little bed that has a short one foot tall rabbit fence.  The kale and broccoli starts on hand also got planted.  A veritable free for all, with space opening up as the peas and broccoli get pulled.  For now it is a beautiful exuberance of attractive green.

Two pea pods in the center

     
      This shot has a little side shoot of broccoli in the middle, with a couple of pea pods to the left, and curly kale leaves with rain droplets.  Simply scrumptious.

Peas picked June 2, 2015

Most pods had eight peas!

Tonight's haul

      Years ago I had concluded that it was a waste of time to try to grow peas.  Too much space required, just buy the peas frozen by the pound.  Well luckily, we tried eating some raw, and a taste sensation was born.  Now we cherish every single one of these peas, eaten as a special treat.  I am even hoping that I have missed some pods that will have peas to use as seed to start the process all over again.

Fava Beans and English Podded Peas

      The nice thing about having a blog site is that it so easily allows me to mix photos and text to keep track of my own gardening progress.  So next year I will be able to go back to today's blog and see that I could probably have planted fava beans and peas a bit earlier.  Fava beans are not your usual bush bean, and can take quite a bit of cold.  I am still learning about favas, including the need to seek out great recipes.  Favas are also known as broad beans.

Fava Bean Starts,  3/21/2012

  



   The plot size at the park is 20 ft by 40 feet.  Gardens are laid out in two plot parcels, so there is a path on three sides of my plot, while the left border abuts my neighbor's garden.  He tills his garden, but can't get right next to my permanent stakes.  Thus a weedy strip grows between the gardens, which means that the weeds ultimately send raiding parties into my plot.  So about a week ago, I dug out the weeds, and mounded up the border with mushroom soil.  And since I have very little open space in which to plant, this seemed the perfect place to plant the fava bean starts.

      I do not always follow the companion planting theory, but I read repeatedly that peas and beans DO NOT LIKE growing with the members of the allium family such as onions and garlic.  That tenet I do respect, so it limits where I can put peas and beans in this plot since there are so many onions and garlic.  This picture shows the cleaned up border area, with the fava beans planted at the top part of the bed, away from the garlic row at the bottom.  While digging out the weeds, I came upon many nice grass clumps.  They were headed for the compost pile, but I put them in the truck instead.  They will be used to patch some bare areas in the lawn at home.  Wish I had many more clumps.

      Here you can see the beans a little more clearly.  They are planted directly in the mushroom soil, so I hope that will not be a problem.  The fava bean plants get to be a bush, easily two to three feet high.  The aphids certainly like fava foliage and stems, but don't seem to be a big problem, as the volunteer ladybugs soon find the bed a great place to find tasty tidbits.

      Ah, another spot not close to onions.  This bed is for the english podded peas, name unknown as I had not labeled the bag of bulk seeds.  Years ago I had sworn off growing podded peas, as they take a lot of space to get a worthwhile harvest.  But I planted some two years ago to use up some seed, and they were sooo delicious when eaten raw like peanuts, that I was a convert.  I will still plant some snap peas and snow peas, but the podded peas are worth some space.

English Podded Peas,  3/21/2012

      In this picture, you can see the peas on the bed.  I tried to drop two peas at about five inch spacing.  Then I went along with a long pole to push them into the bed, thus not having to bend over or plant from a kneeling position.  I am sure the peas didn't care that I avoided a sore back.  Hope they don't mind getting started in the straight mushroom soil top dressing.
      These last two pictures were taken yesterday just for archive purposes:

      The plants above are Tango Lettuce that overwintered without any protection.  Where they were crowded, I dug out a plant or two and replanted them with more leg room.  Yep, then added more mushroom soil as a side dressing.

      This is a shot of one of the cold frames showing lettuce and tatsoi.  Those few empty spots were filled in yesterday with new lettuce starts.  And mushroom soil for good measure.

Keep planting

      I am out of room at the park already.  The tomatoes are not in, the peppers are not either.  The squash and cukes are just starting to sprout on the porch.  So now we start the ritual of cramming more and more plants into inadequate gardening spaces.  The weeds do it, why can't my garden?  Give the weeds a run for their lives.

Peas and Tango Lettuce, Bellevue, 4/27/11

      The shot above is of the ninth bed at Bellevue Park.  On the 27th, I planted a packet of Little Marvel seeds directly in the ground behind these Marvel plants put in from transplants started on the porch.  The frilled Tango Lettuce is now big enough to snip off some outer leaves.  It just occurred to me that I should start some sort of trellis bean on the porch to fill in, as the peas are bush peas, and will not use the top trellis space.  That would be an unacceptable waste of space.

Ox Heart tomatoes, 4/27/11

      One of my gardening neighbors, Brownie, gave me some Ox Heart tomato plants as he was planting his.  Brownie bought and installed a walk-in kit greenhouse at his home last fall.  He is now the proud father to way too many strapping young plants.  He called me over the other day to chat, and surprised me by handing me a fistful of fotos to look at.  You guessed it, his stack of greenhouse pictures.  I divided the two plants in the clay pot, and set out the four plants to spots that could add stakes.  I have never planted out tomatoes this early, but if Brownie can do it, so can I.
      The bottle on the right side of this shot is the "Bottle of Doom".  I patrol the garden at times, and hand pick the bad bugs.  The nasty Herlequin Beatles are already making a very early appearance.  I am trying to pick them off before they get a first initial spawn in.  They take a final swim in the gross remains of former bugs in the bottle.  Maybe if I just left the top off, the disgusting smell would warn the bugs that my garden was not a friendly place.  Maybe then I could sell the stuff?  

Crowd it in, 4/27/11

       The shot above was taken after I transplanted Space Spinach starts in among the Caprio onions starts put out earlier.  The four leafed plant is one of many, many sunflower volunteers getting ready to sky rocket.  At the bottom left is a carrot volunteer.  Along the bottom of the shot are the turnips starting to come up from the seed direct sowed last week.  No weeds invited to this party.

Fava beans, 4/27/11

      The Fava beans are already starting to flower!  Way before other beans are even planted into the ground.  This year I need to try harder to find some recipes for the beans.  I have been enjoying snitching a few leaves now and again to eat straight from the plants.  To force them to get bushier of course.
      Well doing all of this writing has just made me too impatient.  I must go over to the park now to see things in real time.  To check on the plants.  And the robins too.  Good gardening - George

Not quite spring weather

     Ok, so I have been pushing it.  A two day stretch of 60's and 70's last week started the juices flowing.  Some pea starts and onion seedlings went in the ground, as well as eight small cabbage that were a gift.  All cold hardy plants.  But yuck, the forecast lows for the next five nights are 22, 22, 27, 23, and 25 degrees.  The cabbage has already suffered from weather not as bad.  So, it is back to the cold protection bag of tricks.

Homemade cloche

      Using a safety razor, I made a starter cut along the label from a two liter bottle.  Then the little scissors were used to cut off the bottom.

Six done quickly

     Six cloches were made pretty quickly.  The bottoms can be used to plant some seeds, plus the bottoms stack, a huge space savings.

Blellevue, 3/24/11

     So I tromped over to the park this morning where it was not even 34 degrees yet.  Cold, damp, and gray.  The little cloches fit nicely over the cabbage starts that had new growth emerging from the previous frost damage.  The green plants between the plastic bottles are fava beans.  I am gambling that they will stand up to the cold, as supposedly they can be planted in the fall to overwinter.

English podded peas and tango lettuce, 3/24/11

     The next worry was the newly planted snap peas, the English podded peas, and the Tango lettuce.  The plastic sleave used as one of the first instant cold frames for the 2010 winter season was pressed back into temporary service.

Bellevue, 3/24/11

     Instant protection, to be left on for a few days.  The bed of onions that wintered over without protection can be seen in front of the new plastic tunnels.  I have been snitching the scallions already.  The newly planted Walla Walla onion starts will just have to survive on their own.
     Hopefully this is just a short delay before better growing weather.  Garden on,  George

Beans and peas

Fava beans, 3-17-11

 

 

     I like to start all of my beans and peas in flats before planting out.  It allows me to see if the seeds germinated, and eliminates the stage of the birds or mice eating the seeds.  These plants are fava beans, a bean that gets to be much the size of a lima bean.  The plants actually like cool weather, and thus have already been put in the ground on March 17th.  If anyone has a clue as to how to eat them, please let me know.  I would continue to plant them now if only for their ability to fix nitrogen.  They have been planted with cabbage as seen below.  The cabbage and beans will have to fight over the space, a common occurrence in my gardens.  The cabbage plants were started by Willie, but given to me by Bob King.  If they attain only half the size that Bob's grow to be, they will be great.

Cabbage and Fava beans, 3-17-11

Little Marvel peas, 3-17-11

      The Little Marvel peas went in where they can be easily trellised.  I had sworn off growing English podded peas, as being too much trouble for too little yield.  I don't know what made me plant them last year.  But I did, and they were DELICIOUS.  Shelled to a bowl, eaten raw like peanuts.  Not a one ever made it to a pot of boiling water.  So English peas are back on the menu with their equally wonderful cousins the snap peas and snow peas.

Little Marvel peas, 3-17-11

Seedy Notes

     One of the foremost reasons to write this blog is for my own record keeping.  The journal thing became tedious, lugging a notebook around while gardening.  Little notepads worked fine, though piles of notes get jumbled, or lost.  Going back over copious notes becomes tedious.  Getting pictures to match up with notes on my computer is a skill that I don't currently possess.  Except when using this blog.  Where it becomes easy.  Easy to reference past posts with labels.  So this blog will have some note keeping functions for me, such as this post which will be some notes about the current seed starting process.

The garlic started from last fall from puny cloves is doing well.  They should be planted outside next week when the weather is expected to improve.  The Ice Bred Arugula on the right can also go in a cold frame.  Will free up a whole flat for new stuff.

 

  The radicchio that was so beautiful last year is starting to sprout.  It was part of a Mesclun mix, the only thing that lasted through the summer heat.  So this year, I actually started plants from straight seeds.  Hope it equals last year's performance and beauty.





     The seedlings on the porch look better than they appear in this washed out photo.  I believe the cool porch temperature keeps their growth rate slow and prevents them from becoming leggy.
     I gave up on the Prizehead lettuce this morning.  Planted Windsor Fava Beans in the same cells.  Will certainly be no trouble telling them apart if the lettuce comes up late.  Fava beans are unusual in that they can go out in the garden in cool weather.  Cold actually.  Gave up on the Baby Romaine as well, and planted Little Marvel peas in the same cells.  Peas can be started outside here in a month, so these will have a good head start when transplanted.
     Basil is usually very tough for me to get started.  But, I have lots of nice tiny sprouts emerging.  That seed was planted 2/4/11.  Parsley is also usually tough for me, but those seeds too are just starting to unfurl after having been started 2/2/11.  No pictures for either.

In the cardoon / artichoke race, the cardoon on the left has a slight head start on the artichokes.  The cold temperatures on the porch will hopefully trick the artichokes into fruiting in their first season (vernalization).  What will you bet that it does not work?

   The weather is supposed to start to warm up a bit, with next week maybe hitting the 60's.  Hopefully last night's low in the low 20's will be the coldest of the year till next December.  At least that is my hope.  Time to plant soon directly in the cold frames.  George