Tag: Oregon Sugar Pod

Categories
Vegetables Winter

First official sowing of 2013

Timing

Although I have been working in the garden for several weeks now and throwing seeds into the soil randomly to see what would grow, my first official seed sowing was this weekend on February 16, 2013. This is about 4.5 weeks earlier than last year, and the purpose is just to experiment with the micro-climate on my patio.

Soil

Over the winter I have been watching some interesting YouTube gardening videos and have picked up some tips especially for container gardening. This year I am focusing on building my soil and amending the existing Sea Soil in my containers with the following:

  • Fresh Sea Soil compost (to add organic matter and maintain soil structure)
  • Vermiculite (a natural lightweight mineral substance to maintain moisture)
  • Worm castings (for nutrients and hopefully beneficial microbes)
  • Rock dust (to add/replace trace minerals beyond the usual N-P-K in fertilizers)
  • Dolomite lime (a few tablespoons, much of the soil has been in the containers for years and has never been limed, so is likely quite acidic)
  • Dry ‘organic’ fertilizer (a few tablespoons, just because I have it and to replace some N-P-K)
  • Crushed egg shells (run through the Magic Bullet, in theory it should add calcium to the soil, but I’m not sure it it is in a form that is available to the plants – the granular texture will also help with drainage)

Seeds

I sowed two containers of Oregon Sugar Pod, with both seeds that I had from last year and new seeds I purchased.  As I did last year, I planted in a hanging basket and a 12″ pot, and used innoculant to promote the nitrogen fixing ability of these legumes. I decided not to use the Little Marvel seeds… at least not yet, as I had to re-sow a couple of times last year, so obviously they do not hold up to the cold, damp winter weather as well as Oregon Sugar Pod. I also moved the 12″ pot closer to the house so it is warmer and slightly covered — because perhaps the location of the container last year slowed germination.

 

I also sowed some spinach, as it is a cool weather crop which tends to bolt when the days get too long and hot warm. I have sowed a 12″ pot (that used to contain my poor old woody lavender) with Tyee, which is supposed to be a good year-round variety for us on the west coast. It apparently germinates in temperatures as low as 5°C, so I thought I’d give it a try in mid-February.

I also planted some Toy Choy, or baby bok choy. They grew quite well last year but we only got one real harvest from them as my second sowing bolted really quickly. So I thought starting a month sooner may help us get another harvest in. You may have to zoom in to see the seeds, but I sowed 3 rows in my long container. I also plopped in some scallion starts in the middle… which I’m unsure if they will make it this early in the year!

 

Aside from that, I am still slowly harvesting rainbow lacinato kale, gai lan, and beet tops every now and then, though next winter I will grow more so that I actually have more than a couple of leaves to eat at a time!

   

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Sugar and Shelling Peas

This year I planted two varieties of peas: Little Marvel, a bush variety; and Oregon Sugar Pod, a trailing variety. I have never tried growing peas in containers before, so here is my progress thus far.

Oregon Sugar Pod

Oregon Sugar Pod flower - June 12This is a trailing variety that grows to about 3 feet. I decided to try this in a hanging basket to make use of the vertical space on my small patio. It has started to blossom, so hopefully I’ll be picking and eating sugar peas soon! Some of the leaves are yellowing & I’m not sure if it requires a feeding or if it was getting too much rain last week. I’ll try a feeding when I water them tomorrow and see what happens. It has been slower than the suggested 75 days to harvest.

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 27
May 27 (day 63)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

     

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - April 15
Apr 15 (day 21)

 

 

 

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel

Little Marvel - first flowerThis is a bush variety of shelling pea that is meant to grow in a nice, compact manner in a container. I’ve provided a tomato cage for additional support as some of the branches are floppy. After a slower start and having to re-seed sections of the pot several times, these peas seem to be doing well in the container. It has also been slower than the suggested 76 days to harvest, but that is likely due to the need to re-seed.

Little Marvel - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Little Marvel - May 18
May 18 (day 54)
Little Marvel - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Little Marvel - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 27
Apr 27 (day 33)
Little Marvel - April 18
Apr 18 (day 24)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 12
Apr 12 (day 18)
Little Marvel - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Patio overview

I should have posted overview pictures of my patio at an earlier date to show the space that I have to work with. My patio is roughly 8′ x 12′ in the inner courtyard of our ‘U’-shaped building on the main floor of the east arm of the ‘U’ (the top of the ‘U’ faces north). I only get about 6 hours of direct sun at the height of summer on the outer half of my patio.

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago on April 20th (facing west). The first photo is taken from inside my bedroom looking out toward the patio.

Three weeks later on May 13th, pots have moved a bit and things are a lot more green!

Moving from left to right on the patio (and in the photos): 1. Toy choy is in the long grey-brown container on the ledge; 2. hanging in the top left is the trailing Oregon Sugar Pod peas; 3. butterfly bush is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the left; 4. columbine are the pink flowers; 5. crocosmia are the tall spiky leave in the dark brown ceramic pot; 6. Swiss chard are in the smaller clay-coloured pot; 7. the larger clay coloured pot (with white rocks sitting on top of soil) is the future home of butternut squash; 8. the smaller clay-coloured pot sitting on a pedestal is the Little Marvel bush peas; 9. lavender is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the right; 10. rosemary, thyme and oregano are in the dark brown ceramic pot; 11. above the herbs in the long container sitting on the ledge are beets and radishes; 12. the grey-brown long container sitting next to it holds chives and mint; 13. the black pot at the very right of the ledge holds Skimmia; 14. on the patio table are mescluns and squash seedlings that will go to my dad’s garden.

Categories
General Update Spring

Harvest time and update

I made my first toy choy stir fry this weekend almost 6 weeks after planting my first toy choy seeds on March 20th. In truth they could be a little bigger before harvesting (they were about 2 inches tall), but I actually needed to thin them a little and decided they shouldn’t go to waste, so I made a chicken stir fry.

    

The beets and radishes are growing well and I have started to thin a few radishes. These were sown in mid-April, so about 3 weeks on, this is what they look like. The radishes should be ready in another 2-3 weeks, while the beets will be another month or so. The beets, like the Swiss chard, seems to have multiple seeds in one pod, so I had to thin the double beets.

 

The mesclun mix is also growing well, and I transplanted the stray lettuce that was growing amongst the buckwheat. I’ve been thinning out the mesclun every few days, as they can grow to be full-sized heads of lettuce if I let them. I’ll try to keep them around the size of the plant in the foreground so the plan is that we’ll have salad greens once a week or so.

 

The Swiss chard is a bit of a mystery to me. I wonder if I should have just direct-sown them into the pot rather than starting them indoors and transplanting. They started out quite tall and spindly, though they are starting to grow their second and third sets of leaves and beginning to look like Swiss chard. However, they are still very floppy and fall over whenever I water them. I’ve since sown a few more seeds in case some of the transplants don’t make it.

My two varieties of peas are really starting to do well. The Little Marvel that had struggled with our cold, wet spring is starting to fill in, though again, I may have to sow one or two more seeds. And the Oregon Sugar Pod in the hanging basket is also doing well. I notice they have tendrils for gripping and climbing, but I’m hoping the vines will trail downwards. I’ll have to keep an eye on them and train them to trail (if possible!).

The squash seedlings I started indoors for my dad’s garden, Baby Blue Hubbard squash, are doing well… almost too well because they’ve started blossoming already! I have moved them outside to start hardening off the stems and readying them to be transplanted soon. The early butternut squash are also being prepared for transplanting too.

 

The buckwheat has also struggled with the cold spring, and they never really did a good job as a cover crop because they didn’t flourish. However, they will still work as green manure, adding nutrients and improving soil composition as they break down once it is turned-under into the soil. After rescuing the errant mesclun, I turned the buckwheat under to prepare the soil for my butternut squash experiment. Buckwheat can apparently break down within a few days, but I will give it a week or two before planting the squash. I’m also tossing the thinned seedlings into this pot for additional compost.

Aside from veggies, my flowers are doing well. Still no sign of blossoms on the crocosmia, but the columbine is in full bloom now and I’ve spotted a few pollinating insects checking out the flowers. I also have an alpine columbine that is a dwarf version planted in the same pot. I thought it was done-for as it has struggled in past years, but lo-and-behold it is blooming this year! As well, I have FINALLY seen the first sign of life of the butterfly bush (Aesclepias), so now I know they won’t generally pop up until the first two weeks of May.

Categories
General Update Spring Vegetables

General Update – Busy week

I’ve been pretty busy this week and didn’t get to post as much as usual, but I did take some photos. Temperatures have warmed up to consistently above 10 degrees Celsius and have had some very sunny days, as well as some very rainy days! Ah springtime in Vancouver! But we also had several days where the wind was blowing in from the west and there was a salty sea air that is so refreshing! That’s one of my favourite things about living on the coast!

It’s about 5 1/2 weeks into Spring and since I started working on my outdoor vegetable garden. I have seedlings galore and can’t wait to start harvesting!

Toy Choy – At 5 1/2 weeks, my baby bok choy is about 2 inches tall. I’ll wait until they get a little bigger before I harvest them, as I really like them in stir fry! I initially spread seeds all over the container, then 2 weeks later added more to the right-hand side of the planter, then 2 weeks after that I reseeded the left-hand side. Next year, I will seed one side, then seed the other, and alternate… that makes more sense.

Buckwheat – At 5 1/2 weeks the buckwheat seems to be suffering. We’ve had a pretty cold spring and quite a bit of rain, so I think that’s why the buckwheat is still so small and yellow. It does tell me that I need to add some more sand to the container to improve drainage, though, before I plant my squash in the same soil. However, I have a rogue mesclun lettuce seed that grew from last year (the purply plant). This is what the mesclun in my small patio table container will eventually look like.

Mesclun – About 11 days after planting the mesclun seed mix, I have a lot of tiny seedlings. They benefited from being covered for two days under a plastic produce bag to create a greenhouse effect. The planter was uncovered for several days after sowing with no movement, then I covered it over and within a day they sprouted. Just providing the extra few degrees of warmth really seems to make a difference. I will have to thin these out soon, but when they are a little bigger.

Peas – Both the Little Marvel and Oregon Sugar Pod are doing well after their second sowing. The Oregon Sugar Pod seems to have done well even with the cool Spring, though it is placed much closer to the building and likely got more ambient warmth to help with germination. The Little Marvel has been less successful and I think I may need to re-sow a third time to fill in some gaps. However, that planter was further from the building and was exposed to more cold, wind and rain. It’s very possible that, even though I didn’t soak the seeds prior to sowing, they could have gotten water-logged with all the rain we’ve had. I also didn’t plant them very deep, so that could have also exposed the seedlings a bit too early. In any case, the Little Marvel seems to be doing better and I still think they’ll flourish soon.

 

Swiss chard – About 6 days after I transplanted the Swiss chard outside, I seem to have had a planter mis-hap… or more accurately, a planter misplacement. I inadvertently had placed the planter under the corner of the balcony above my patio. We had some heavy rainfalls this week and the rain gathered at the point right above my chard planter and continuously dripped on my poor fragile seedlings (and made a big splashy mess on the patio floor!). So I’ve moved the planter and planted some backup seeds in case my seedlings don’t make it. I also went over to a friend’s house (she is the one who gave me the chard seeds) and found that she has over 10 plants growing really well in a much shallower container! Even if all of my transplants survive and the new seeds sprout, I think I’m safe to keep them all!

 

Beets & Radishes – The beets and radishes have also already sprouted and they’re not kidding that radishes grow fast! These seeds were sown about 14 days ago. The bigger seedlings with heart-shaped leaves are radishes, while the seedlings with the thin red stems are beets. They look similar to the Swiss chard seedlings because they are closely related.

Columbine – Aside from the Skimmia, the first of my flowers to bloom will be the columbine. It has had foliage most of the year, but it did die back in the winter. It has about 5 flowering stalks this year with multiple buds on each. Can’t wait for it to open!

 

Categories
General Update Vegetables

General Update – I’m addicted!

I’m officially addicted and can’t seem to stop planting things. This weekend I even went over to my dad’s garden (dragging my accommodating hubby along with me) to weed, till, and plant some side beds. Now he’ll have some buckwheat and a blend of wildflowers that will attract bees to pollinate his garden.

Below is an updated shot of the seedlings in my Aerogarden. The butternut squash (at the back) and Swiss chard (in the middle) were planted on Easter Monday night (9 days ago). I need to get larger peat pots because the butternut squash seedlings are quickly outgrowing these small ones. I already see roots poking out the side walls! About 2 days ago, I planted two more pots of swiss chard (1 ‘Bright Lights’ and 1 rhubarb chard) and two pots of baby blue hubbard squash (which will go to my dad’s garden). Those are the pots with the little domes over top to help keep the soil moist. In the close up shot you can see the different colours of the Swiss chard stalks.

The Toy Choy sprouts continue to grow. You can see some smaller seedlings coming up from when I had thrown more seeds into the right-hand side of the planter 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I added some more seeds to the left-hand side of the planter. This is so that I hopefully have some good successive crops because I really do love baby bok choy stirfry!

My peas are really starting to do well. The Oregon Sugar Pod in my hanging basket is doing great! I think I may pop in a couple more seeds to fill in the gaps. It will be a good time to top up the soil too! I also found this great swivel connector that will allow me to spin my hanging planter around to share the sunshine evenly.

I posted a few days ago that I replanted my Little Marvel peas because only one out of about twelve seeds sprouted. That was a little disappointing and I still don’t know what happened. However, just a few days later and I can already see some sprouts beginning to pop out (the white things in the foreground below) in front of the lone seedling from the first round of planting.

I wasn’t supposed to add another container to the patio – this is what I said last week after I bought a 24″ pot for the Swiss chard – but I’ve added another one. But in my defense it is small (8″) and is meant to be a decorative but edible feature that will sit on our patio table. And I had the seeds already from last year, so I couldn’t let them go to waste, could I? I’ve planted a mesclun mix of mustard greens with a few spinach seeds thrown in for good measure. These will be ‘cut-and-come-again’ salad greens for when I have a hankering for fresh salad.

Below are photos of the buckwheat (29 days) and beet & radish (4 days) progress.

 

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Update – Container Peas

There have been some positives and negatives with the container peas.

The Oregon Sugar Pod that I planted in the hanging basket has done well. This photo was taken a few days ago and the seedlings are already over an inch tall and have started to develop another set of leaves. There are about 10 seedlings so far. I will have to add some soil when they are a little bigger because I forgot that the soil compacts after watering.

 

The Little Marvel on the other hand has not germinated as well, and I have only one seedling in 20 days, so I am reseeding the pot and just adding soil on top. I poked around to see if there were any seedlings on their way that just hadn’t broken through the surface yet, but there was no sign of life. I didn’t add inoculant as I had already put some in during the first sowing, so when the roots reach that level the inoculant should take effect. Let’s hope it works better this time! Perhaps I put too much soil on top… or perhaps the seeds were eaten?

Categories
General Update Spring Vegetables

General update – More seedlings!

Spring is finally coming, though I wouldn’t call it consistently warm outside. I had a visitor in the garden the other day, this lovely little ladybug. Hopefully it will eat the disgusting spittlebugs that have made a home in my herb pot!

In any case, lots has been happening in the garden!

 

 

There are buckwheat seedlings in the foreground. I think I mistook an errant fall rye seedling left over from past years for buckwheat. That’s ok, fall rye is good for the garden too!

 

 

The Columbine just keeps growing and growing…

 

 

 

… And the Crocosmia too! I hope I’ll have flowers this year. Last year I must have planted them too late and only got foliage. See how these looked on the first day of spring.

 

The herb container is also doing well. The rosemary continues to flower, and the oregano and thyme are filling out.

 

The peas that are growing in the hanging basket are coming up, creating a circular pattern of tiny sprouts! Just how I sowed the seeds.

 

 

Last but not least, my first Little Marvel seedling!

Categories
Garden Stuff General Update Spring Vegetables

General update – Seedlings!

I went away for the Easter weekend, during which we had sunshine and warm temperatures. The weather, and likely just the few extra days, have led to seedlings in the garden!

 

Toy choy

 

 

 

Buckwheat

 

 

 

Oregon Sugar Pod

 

 

Last night I also pulled out my Aerogarden to start seedlings that will go outside in May. The Aerogarden is a counter-top hydroponic system for growing tomatoes, herbs, salad greens and flowers. I’ve tried the tomatoes and herbs, but I find it is better used as a seed starter rather than growing the seed pods they offer. It takes a fair bit of electricity to run this because it has a water pump (24/7) and lighting (17 hrs/day).

I have started ‘Bright Lights’ Swiss Chard (3 pots x 4 seeds) and Early Butternut Squash (2 pots x 2 seeds). I’ll also start my Baby Blue Hubbard Squash that will go in my Dad’s garden too, but have to pick up the seeds first.

Categories
General Update Herbs Spring Vegetables

General update – Container progress

This week has been slightly warmer, with temperatures around 7 degrees Celsius. Here is a photo log of seed and plant progress:

Toy Choy (planted 10 days ago on March 20) – I’m unsure if this is a Toy Choy sprout… or just a weed. It also appears something has been digging in the soil to pull out a larger piece of eggshell and exposed an ungerminated seed.

 

Buckwheat (planted 10 days ago on March 20) – No sign of life yet to cover and protect my soil!

 

 

Peas (planted 5 days ago on March 25) – No sprouts yet for both Little Marvel and Oregon Sugar Pod. The package says 7-10 days for germination.

 

Crocosmia & Calla Lily (perennial) – Crocosmia continues to do well. Still no sign of Calla Lily.

 

 

Columbine, Lavender & Herb container (perennial) – All are doing well. The rosemary always flowers early in the Spring.

Mystery plant – This is a plant that I won as a door prize one year. I’m not sure what it is, but it always survives the winter. However, when I transplanted it a couple of years ago its roots looked pretty sad. Given the sparse yellow leaves I’m not sure that it’s doing much better, though it is flowering. I know it is a cool weather, shade liking plant. However, I’m not sure how to help it thrive.

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