Posts tagged peas
Spring garden is really coming along. Did a walk through this morning, and just snapped a few pics. I’m very surprised how well my peas are doing. Last year I babied them and they were terrible. This year I’ve done very little with them and they are doing fine. They thrive on neglect apparently.
Annotated where each of the plants are going in the garden.
Bottom triangle: melons zucchini, and summer squash
Bottom trapezoid: broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers (lower trellis)
Middle trapezoid: cucumbers (lower trellis), beets, tomatoes
Top trapezoid: tomatoes, carrots, carrots.
Fence bed side: onions, wax beans, kohlrabi
Top Fence bed: wax beans, okra
Back Yard Gardening with Farmer Pete.
The weather this spring has been very kind to my little townhouse backyard garden. Everything is just flourishing in the wet/hot/wet/mild cycle we’ve been having.
We’ve already harvested our radishes and made a second planting of carrots in their place. The peas that I risked planing in early March have just started producing edible peapods.
The carrots are getting quite big as are the beets. I’ve got flowers on the tomato plants so big red fruits shouldn’t be far behind.
My melon plants are looking to get going any time now. I really like the flowers they lay out. I’m ready for them this year. I will be training them to behave, unlike last year where they simply took over my yard.
The cucumbers are the best surprise, I didn’t think we’d be getting flowers and cukes as early as June, but there they are. They’re competing for space with the peas, so I’ll be interested to see how they fight.
Pretty soon we’ll have to get the canning gear switched from strawberry jam into pickle making. We’re trying to get ourselves stocked for the winter with canned goods from our humble little yard. I think I’ll do a canning post when we get there. GO BUY A CANNER if you’re tending a garden. You will not regret it.
Now to cook some din din!
My mead that I’d posted about earlier this year was recently awarded the bronze medal in the traditional mead category for the winemaker magazine international wine competition. We’re pretty excited! Now I’m in the process of narrowing down where I’ll source my honey from and attempt to improve on last years recipe. I simply cannot wait to get that new fermentation rolling along.
In other news, it’s been quite a busy time in my garden. All this wet weather has been really helping some of my plants and making other’s struggle. I certainly could probably grow champions next year during the spring.
I’ve decided to halt the potato box at it’s current height and see how it goes.I really want to have a good yield, but I don’t want to have the lower bed taters suffer. After some excellently warm weather yesterday and today, my cucumbers have finally come to life. The sweet potatoes are rallying and my newly mulched melon beds are doing much better. The grape vines have come to life and have started climbing. I can’t wait for the sunflowers and peas to start blooming in earnest.
Living in Maryland, we get a lot of very humid and hot days. I constructed a rain water collection system, but once the rain lets up I’m going to be harder pressed to use only rain water for my garden. I’m going to be looking into storing some of the city water in the barrel when it starts to get dry. I think that leaving the top off of the barrel will help to get rid of most of the chlorine (hopefully) before I have to use it on the garden.
The next big project that I’m looking to undertake is a sidepath from my front to my backyard that will help improve the drainage around my home as well as to minimize the mud during the wetter parts of the spring.
Anyone else doing fun things in their garden so far?
