Tag: peas

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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.

Categories
General Update Spring Vegetables

General update – Seed germination progress

It has been one week since planting the Toy Choy and Buckwheat seeds. The weather has been relatively cold, below seasonal and we also had some near zero degree Celsius days, so it doesn’t look like either have germinated.

Definitely no Buckwheat yet. I’m not sure about the Toy Choy because I topped up both planters on Friday when I got a new bag of Sea Soil. Perhaps I shouldn’t have topped up the planter with the Toy Choy because those seeds are very small and you generally cover up the seeds relative to their size. I may have delayed the germination, but I thought it might help protect the seeds a bit better if we have another cold snap and to add some nutrients to the soil. We’ll see how it goes!

No action on the peas yet, since I just planted them yesterday.

The crocosmia, snap dragons and columbine continue to grow well. Still no sign of the calla lily and butterfly bush.

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Spring Vegetables

Container peas

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

 

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Spring

First day of Spring 2012

To be grown in my garden
To be grown in my garden

With the little bit of sunshine we had this past weekend my gardening bug has already bitten me. I was out on the patio prepping some of my containers.

I cleared out my long, shallow plastic container (approximately 24″ x 5″ x 8″) that held my Parisian Ball carrots, similar to this little round variety. They grew pretty well last year, but took a long time to mature, so I thought I would try something else early in the year. I still have the opportunity to start carrots later in the season so that they grow into the winter time. I have been collecting eggshells all winter as a soil amendment, so I added a few scoops of crushed shells to the existing soil. I think this will help lighten the soil up a bit as well. In this I’ve planted Toy Choy (baby bok choy) seeds, as they only need a shallow container and cool temperatures. These miniature Asian veggies should mature in 4-6 weeks (barring any unseasonable snowfalls).

I’ve also got a large, round plastic pot (approximately 24″ in diameter, 24″ tall) which held my miniature watermelon last year. I had a bit of a mis-hap and snipped the main stem when I was trying to cut back the leaves, so I can’t report how well it could have fared in a pot. Generally I know that watermelons are not ideal for pots, but I thought it may work if I had just one plant with really good compost. This year I am going to try growing one Butternut squash plant and train it up a trellis or obelisk. It’s a bit of a risk for several reasons (less than ideal sunlight, chance of powdery mildew, squash plants spread like crazy), but I’ll keep the vine trimmed and leaves tidy, and hope for the best. It is still about 6 weeks before I need to plant my squash seeds, so I have amended the soil again with eggshells and planted some Buckwheat seeds as a quick growing cover crop. These should hopefully start sprouting in a week. I’ll turn them under in about 4-5 weeks to create some ‘green manure’ in the container.

Aside from that, I am also thinking of trying to grow some dwarf bush peas in a small container, so I have moved the snapdragons that have been calling my 12″ round container home for the last several years. No soil amendment yet though. As well, my Crocosmia have been popping up out of the soil for a couple of weeks now, but I’m not sure if my pink Calla lily or my Butterfly bush survived the winter, as I’ve seen no signs of life yet. On the other hand, my Columbine has been growing like mad since early February! Generally I keep these flowers around for attracting bees and beneficial insects that may have no other reason to visit my neck of the woods.

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