nitrogen fixer – Tiny Garden

I may have mentioned that I am trying winter gardening this year.

I have already harvested my radishes, which matured very quickly with our warm September. These were planted on September 10th and harvested the second weekend of October. We had an unseasonably warm and dry September this year, though I’m not complaining!

These Kestrel beets were also planted on September 10th and have been growing under a light weight row cover cloth to keep out pests. This progress picture was taken on November 2nd, and while I have added a layer of SeaSoil as mulch and moved the pot close to the building to keep them as warm as possible, it may still be a month before they are ready. These beets are growing in 18″ of soil.

This is my first time growing kale. This is a Rainbow Lacinato kale, which is a cross between Redbor and Lacinato. This was also planted on September 10th and update photo taken on November 2nd, but I am a little disappointed in its growth. I know that through the fall growth will slow, but I will admit that since kale is a cold weather veggie I expected it to be huge by now! There is definitely new growth, and perhaps because this plant is growing where the Swiss chard lived in the summer time the soil may be a bit depleted. I can’t remember if I had added a bit of fertilizer prior to seeding, but regardless it may be too cold for the the fertilizer to break down and make the nutrients available. I just did a feeding of (stinky) liquid fish emulsion fertilizer. I have also topped it up with some new SeaSoil and dug in some glacial rock dust to amend the soil, so hopefully this all helps. My other Rainbow Lacinato which is growing in the pot that held the peas this summer seems to be doing a touch better. I’m guessing it is because the peas helped to fix nitrogen in the soil, especially since I used the inoculant.

This is also my first attempt at gai lan, an Asian vegetable that is like sprouting broccoli or rapini. I didn’t really know how big these plants get (this is why it wound up in the hanging basket) so I’m not sure how well it will do. I don’t expect to harvest anything until closer to February, but it seems to be doing well. Again, it could be due to the fact that it is in another planter which held peas and therefore there is good nitrogen content in the soil. Next year I may have to plant more of these if we actually want a meal of gai lan.

One vegetable that did not do well when I started it from seed in September was my new batch of Swiss chard. The plants I had throughout the summer had started to bolt, so I popped some seeds into one of my 6″ deep planters, but alas they are still a whole one centimeter tall.

You will also see that there are a few scallions popping up in some of the photos. I put out the roots from scallions we bought from the grocery store just to see if they would sprout again. Lo and behold even in the cold snap we had during October they sprouted up like it was nothing! I have started some more seeds indoors, and actually I even started some outdoors just to see what happens. The worst that can happen is, well, nothing! I’ll update in the future on how these little seeds do: Tyee spinach, Rouge d’Hiver lettuce, and Little Gem lettuce. The seeds I’ve got started indoors include Rouge d’Hiver, Little Gem, and Cimmaron lettuce, as well as Apache scallions.

This year instead of tomatoes, I decided to try growing peas in a container. I really don’t think we have enough sun and heat for tomatoes, so for the amount of effort I put in each year, I end up with a very small harvest. I thought peas may work on my patio for several reasons:

1) There are a couple of compact bush varieties that do not get super huge. Dwarf varieties are good because you will likely just need to stake them for additional support rather than build a net or trellis needed for climbing varieties.

I will try the variety Little Marvel, a bush variety shelling pea, in my 12″ container. They should only grow to approximately 18″ tall.

I also decided to try Oregon Sugar Pod, a vine variety snow pea, in my hanging 10″ container. These have short vines that will grow to about 30″, which I thought would be perfect to try in a hanging basket usually used for flowers.

2) Peas are suited for cooler climates, which in southern BC we know temperatures don’t usually heat up until June. This means that there is potential to plant successively and harvest 2-3 times through the year if you plant early enough.

3) Peas can be planted in tight quarters, requiring only 1 inch between seeds and a soil depth of approximately 12 inches. I will try to plant about 12 seeds in a circle in the centre of a 12″ diameter pot.

4) Peas and other legumes serve double duty in the garden as nitrogen fixers. They have little nodes on their roots which help these plants access nitrogen from the atmosphere, and when the plant dies the nitrogen is released into the soil benefiting the veggies you plant in that container next year. Using an inoculant will enhance this process. In the picture above, the light brown stuff is inoculant powder.

Planting notes: For both pots, Sea Soil is the primary growing medium. It was amended with eggshells and organic kelp-based dry fertilizer. Inoculant was added to the soil where the seeds were planted. Seeds were then covered with 1″ of Sea Soil and watered thoroughly. Seeds were not pre-soaked, as we have rain forecast for the upcoming week and temperatures are still low (3-7 degrees Celsius), so the soil should not dry out too much. However, this may extend the germination period by a few days.

Sources and for more information:

West Coast Seeds – Growing guide for peas

Annette McFarlane – Growing peas info sheet

Backyard Gardening Blog – How to grow garden peas

Wikipedia – Nitrogen fixation