Peas and Beans

The peas are GONE. I yanked them out and hung the plants up to dry. In a few days I'll go out and remove the pods from the vines and shell the peas. I definitely did not get a lot of pounds out of my peas this year, but it was entirely because I wasn't out there picking them every couple days. I should have been snacking on peas at least once a day. Instead, the peas got too old and now they'll be dried peas that I can put into soups and what not.



In their place, I've planted beans. I was having trouble deciding what kind of beans to plant because I would like to grow a variety that I can use in soups and chilis and what not, in addition to the typical "green bean" varieties. I looked for awhile at buying several packages of bean seeds, but since I only wanted a few of each type of bean, I decided the best option was to just buy a bag of mixed soup beans from the store and grow those!

I soaked them for two nights, by which time they all had little roots sticking out of them. On Wednesday, I took them out and planted them right along the fence where the peas used to be, using 3" spacing and trying to mix up the varieties as much as possible. A couple beans are already starting to show some leaves. It will be very exciting to see how the variety looks as it grows!

More New Beginnings

I spent a chunk of my morning making small newspaper pots to start my corn seeds! Corn is always exciting to me because it was the flagship in my family's garden as a child. I will be planting corn along with beans between my already planted squash in a Three Sisters Garden. In this arrangement, the corn provides support for the beans, the beans provide nitrogen fixing for the heavy feeding corn and squash, and the squash grows around the base of the corn and beans providing shade (and therefore more moisture) for their roots and protecting them from animals with their prickly leaves and stems. This arrangement also allows for an efficient spacing of plants; I hope to have about 30 corn and bean plants planted by mid summer. The newspaper pots should provide a good nursery for my corn plants that will break down once I transplant the sprouts into the garden. The corn seeds are soaking as I right (and have been since this morning) and they'll go into their little pots this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Other new beginnings are everywhere. My pea plants have just started to blossom, the fava beans have blossoms EVERYWHERE, almost every tomato plants has little yellow flowers, and even my boysenberries have a few white flowers to show off for summer. The carrot seeds I planted a few weeks back have finally started to sprout. The asian greens and mesclun I planted with them didn't fare so well, with only a half dozen or so mustard greens sprouting. But summer is fast approaching and the greens will get bitter with the heat, so it's not much loss. Perhaps I didn't water enough, or the seeds were too old (I bought them in 2009).

Plans for this week are to put in the pepper and strawberry plants I bought last week, seed the corn, seed more radishes and beets, and tie up the tomatoes and fava beans which have outgrown their last set training ties.

Busy Weekend

Alright...I spent all of Saturday afternoon and a couple hours on Sunday in the garden. Here's what happened:

In the Tomato Bed:

1. Tomatoes got pruned (any branches that were dead, dying, munched, or too close to the ground) and tied vertically against the fence



2. 13 Basil Seedlings (3 each Lemon, Mini, Purple, Genovese and 1 Sweet) were transplanted into the bed



3. 3 Scallions were transplanted into the bed



4. 1 Anaheim Pepper and 1 Red Bell Pepper purchased from Home Depot were planted
   


5. A cup or two of E.B. Stone Vegetable fertilizer was sprinkled on the bed
   


6. A bag of compost/mulch was spread around the bed

Along the concrete wall:

1. The edible peas and sweet peas were yanked up



2. Two bags of compost/mulch was spread around



3. Runner beans were planted (12 inch spacing...right under the drip line drips)



4. 1 Edamame bean was planted (I had others but I left them out overnight and somebody stole them)



5. Carrots tops were unburied so that they can continue to grow despite the mulch



6. Cucumber seeds were planted (3 sweet cucumbers, 3 English cucumbers)



7. A 5ish ft row of radishes alternating with carrots was planted.
   

In the corner:

1. 1 bag of compost/mulch was spread around



2. 7 corn seedlings were transplanted (and one new seed)
   


3. 1 acorn , 1 delicata, and 1 spaghetti squash were transplanted



4. 4 Sunzilla Sunflower Seeds
   

Beans Begin!

I emptied a package of Magic Beanstalk Scarlet Runner Beans and 6 Edamame seeds into a wet paper towel in a bowl. I'm planning on putting them in the ground on Friday or Saturday.

Tonight's dinner menu comes from our garden again. My Juliet tomato plant has finally decided it wants to fruit so I decided we should have BLTs tonight to celebrate the little tomatoes. Bread machine sourdough is rising as I type and a pack of bacon is defrosting. I've got a little head of some sort of red leaf lettuce (it randomly grew in what used to be the chard bed) that will join some Juliet tomatoes and a sliced red onion (sadly store bought). I also took out a cup or so of the fava beans I froze a little while back and I think I'll make a spread out of those to moisten the sandwich instead of the traditional mayonnaise.

All the squash seeds have sprouted except the Black Beauty Zucchini. Honestly, I'm not heartbroken about that! I only wanted the Black Beauty for its blossoms anyways, so having that plant get a little bit of a late start is fine by me. Zucchini squash is gross...except in zucchini bread (mmm).

The Dulcetta pepper seeds definitely get the award for being the most reliable seed. Another one has sprouted, and nothing from the other three types of peppers I seeded at the same time.

My tomato bed is becoming overrun with (surprise) tomato plant. I'll have to go out as soon as I get a chance and start training those up the fence so I don't lose the ground space. My plan is to plant my basil, onion, and pepper seedlings in there on Friday or Saturday.

Tally:
11 oz Juliet Tomatoes