Planting Sugar Snap Peas

A favorite fall vegetable crop of ours is Sugar Snap Peas.  They are a staple in our garden from year to year.  They blanch and freeze well and are delicious in stir fry dishes, soups and Asian dishes and to just eat them raw out standing by the pea trellis.  Once I cleared out the beans from the trellis that were finishing up from the Spring Garden, I reworked one little row to prepare a nice seedbed for this year's Sugar Snap Peas.

I plant them one inch deep and four inches apart right beneath the trellis, which is simply a 16 foot livestock panel placed between t-posts for support.  The soil was covered with mulch and as I raked away the mulch, the ground worked up well, not compacted at all and had good soil moisture.

The peas are dried out, but upon coming in contact with the soil, they'll come to life!

Here is a better photo of the trellis.  If you look closely, you can see the peas in the trench, planted four inches apart.  It is important to have a sturdy trellis as these peas grow tall, exceeding 6 feet.  The plant can be heavy and will blow over in high winds.  Sometimes we have to tie the vines to the trellis.  Once the peas get about 5 inches tall, they send out tendrils.  We walk by and wrap the tendrils around the trellis to train them to climb.  Once latched on, there's no stopping them!

We thought we were all good to go, but then it rained.  And rained and rained.  We never thought it would stop.  All the peas in the ground must have rotted because only 1 sugar snap pea plant germinated!  But that won't slow us down.  As soon as the ground dried up, we replanted from the peas in the same packet.  This time they germinated.  Every last one of them.

The little peas are vigorous and healthy.  Cooler temperatures and beautiful weather have encouraged growth.  Before long we'll pull mulch around the base of the plants to discourage competition from weeds.  Then I'll add some fish emulsion and we'll sit back and watch them grow.

In addition to being delicious to eat, sugar snap peas have beautiful flowers that enhance the garden.  We'll show some photos as the pea crop of 2021 progresses.

Cole Crop Planting in the Middle of Summer

Looking ahead!  In gardening, planning and preparation are key.  If you are planting from seed, some things, like broccoli, take 100 - 150 days to mature.  You've always got to be thinking weeks or months ahead.  Right now, the garden is pretty slow except for the okra.  It is amazing how fast okra blooms produce pods.  I'm also watching the sweet potato vines consume the garden.

I got out my LSU AgCenter Vegetable Planting Guide and discovered that if I want to be harvesting delicious cole crops this fall/winter, then I'd better get on the ball and plant some seeds.  There is nothing wrong with waiting until much later and going to the feed store and purchasing plants that are 6 to 8 inches tall and transplanting them into your garden.  In fact, sometimes when I have germination problems, I do that very thing.  There is just something authentic and pure about putting a dead seed in the ground and watching it grow.

I filled seed pots with seed starting mix and pulled all of my seeds out of the freezer.  First, I planted some broccoli.  I'm going with Waltham broccoli, which is a traditional broccoli.  I'm also planting a Romanesco Italia broccoli.  It is light green and has a very interesting feature.  It has numerous spiral heads that have a 'nutty' flavor.

As far as cauliflower is concerned, I planted three varieties.  First, Erfurter, a traditional while big-headed cauliflower.  Next, a Green Macerata cauliflower, which, as the name suggests, is green.  Finally, a Purple of Sicily cauliflower that has a big purple head.  I also planted a flat of brussels sprouts even though we haven't had success with them for the past several years as the little heads burst open instead of making the "little cabbages."

As far as cabbage is concerned, I planted three varieties.  One is a variety simply labeled "Cabbage," that I bought at the feed store years ago.  The next is Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage and then finally, Brunswick cabbage.

I simulated a rainfall on the flats of freshly planted seed and put them up on a table on the patio.  With our warm weather, these ought to sprout quickly if I keep the soil moist.

I'll have to remember each evening and morning to give them a good soaking.  I would also be wise to keep a sharp eye out for the cats as I don't want them to jump up on the table and wreak havoc on my seed starts. 

Sowing a cold weather crop in the peak months of summer requires patience - a virtue I haven't got much of!

Sowing Seeds for the Fall Garden 2016

With the garden all worked up on Saturday, it was time to get seeds in the ground. I feel like I'm a month behind already, so I was impatient to start planting.  As discussed yesterday, I decided to go ahead and work up the entire garden and then begin planting the seeds in the Cole Crop family first since their cut-off date for fall planting for seeds in our area was October 15th.

Here's a picture of four rows ready for planting.

After working up a few rows, I was a little winded, so I went inside and got out my LSU Vegetable Guide.  You can find it online HERE.  It is really helpful and contains information for each crop that includes planting dates for Spring and Fall, planting depth, space between plants and Days Until Harvest.

Once I had the full garden worked, I climbed up on a ladder and took a picture.  I guess that's how people took pictures from this vantage point before drones!

Now I used both saved seed as well as purchased seed.  Here is some saved bok choy seed.

And here are two varieties of beet seeds - Bull's Blood Beets and Chioggia.

Beet seeds are different than any other seeds:

I planted two varieties of Swiss Chard - Rainbow and Fordhook Giant

In addition to those mentioned above, I also planted cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas, spinach, cilantro, three varieties of carrots, 5 varieties of lettuce, parsley, celery, and radishes.  In a couple of weeks, I intend on planting some turnips and mustard greens.

We're expecting a cool snap along with some much needed rain tomorrow.  Grow seeds Grow!

Planting seeds and Transplanting Tomatoes

Warmer weather has enticed me to go ahead and get things in the ground.  Benjamin helped me start sowing seeds.  Below he's planting some Roma II Italian beans. These are really a favorite of our family.  Romas are a flat snap bean that are hard to beat as far as flavor goes.  Benjamin and I work as a team in planting to make it go quickly.  After the seedbed is prepared, I make holes at appropriate depths and distances and Benjamin drops the seeds in the holes and covers them.

There's something about planting seeds that is special.  The anticipation, the faith, the work.  It creates an excitement that I think is hard-wired into us.  Benjamin and I planted the following beans/peas so far:

• Contender Green Beans
• Roma II Italian Beans
• Dragon Tongue Beans
• Chinese Mosaic Long Beans
• Rattlesnake Pole Beans
• Peanuts
• Purple Hull Pinkeye cowpeas
• Razorback cowpeas
• Blackeyed Peas

A simple seed

In addition to seeds, it is now time to start getting our little plants that we've been nurturing since the very beginning of January into the ground.  I moved the tomatoes out to the cold frame and have been hardening them off.  In order to hedge my bets, I've been moving them out slowly, one or two varieties at a time.  That way, if we have a big storm or a late freeze, I won't lose the entire crop.

These are the varieties of heirloom tomatoes we have planted for the 2014 crop year:

• Thessaloniki
• Abu Rawan
• Valenciano 749 (saved from a previous year)
• Black Krim
• Arkansas Traveler
• Mortgage Lifter
• Money maker (saved from a previous year)
• Organic Beefsteak
• Reisentraube
• Gypsy
• Amish Paste
• Big Rainbow
• Black from Tula
• Pink Brandywine

Tomato plants in the cold frame wanting to get their roots into the garden soil.

Ready to spread their roots out and GROW!!

So one variety at a time, I bring them out and get ready to plant, ensuring that my spacing is good.  The LSU AgCenter planting guide says to plant them 16 - 24 inches apart.  I keep good records of transplant dates and the row I planted each variety on.   

You can see how i have a 20 foot tape measure anchored and stretched out.  I mark each 18 inch place at which I'll be planting the tomato plants.

Healthy Pink Brandywine Tomato Plants

You can tell that the plants are tall and slightly 'leggy.'  The nice thing about tomatoes is that you can plant them deep as the stem will create roots, so I dig a deep hole.  The ground is nice and soft though and not hard at all to dig with my knife.  The moisture in the soil was perfect.

Digging a hole

If your tomatoes are too tall and leggy and you don't plant them deep, you risk breakage in high winds and droopy, weak plants.  Setting them deep in the hole gives them some strength.

Planting the tomato

Now I simply fill in the hole with dirt, give the ground a pat and that right there is a happy tomato.  In 60 - 75 days (if the Good Lord's willing) we'll be picking our first tomatoes!

A healthy, happy tomato

Since planting we had some weather in the upper 30's along with winds and an inch of rain and so far all of the tomatoes have weathered the storms nicely and are still looking good.  I'll try to get the rest of them planted this week.  I heard a funny saying this week that goes like this:

I'm so excited it's Spring that I wet my Plants!

Saturday Planting Day

Once all the chores were done Saturday morning, my focus turned to the garden. There were things that I needed to get in the ground.  My sidekick and partner-in-crime, Benjamin was willing to assist, so we got busy.  I had to pull up a few rows first.  I have a little system that works for me and I'll explain what I do. Over the past several years I've moved to gardening using no tillage provided by machine.  Partially because I don't own a tiller and always have to borrow one, but more because I don't want to disturb the soil structure.

I now plant on the same rows every season, but using different dirt - if that makes any sense.  What I do is once I pull up my rows, I completely fill in the valley between rows with leaves and composted cow and chicken poop and then hay.  All this organic matter fills in the rows so that you can't even tell that there is a row.  It is all one level.  During the year, I'll pull back the organic matter between the rows and with a shovel, I'll bury coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, shredded paper, etc.  Fast forward one growing season.  All of the organic matter has decomposed and I take my big hoe and pull all of that rich, musty, damp, good smelling soil right up on top of the row and I'll plant seeds directly into it.  Then I start over again filling the valley with new compost. When I pull the rich compost up, it is teeming with small organisms and earthworms. As a co-worker told me, "You could probably drop a dog turd in that stuff and grow a dog!"

The photo below shows several things:

1. On the right you can see the 2014 potato crop growing nicely, surrounded by hay that keeps all weed pressure at bay.
2. In the pasture, you can see the hens scattered out foraging for bugs, worms, frogs, seeds, as far as the eye can see, and eating the fresh, new grass of Spring.
3. You can also see the sower sowing seed.  Benjamin is planting Chinese Mosaic Long beans and Rattlesnake Pole beans.  Both will attach themselves to the trellis and grow all the way to the top of it while yielding a nice crop.  Both of these seeds were some that we saved from last year, so we're interested to see how our germination percentage goes.

Ye Olde Bean Planter

One row behind Benjamin in the photo above, you can see a long, tall, green shoot. That is our asparagus. The rootstock is going on about five years old.  There are numerous little shoots of asparagus popping up that I normally snack on raw right out of the garden.  Here are a couple of asparagus shoots right here:

Looks like Junior from Veggie Tales!

And another one in the photo below.  If you don't break them off when they are this size, they grow very quickly, becoming 'woody' and too tough to eat.  Then they become a big, fern like plant that gobbles up a large space in the garden.

Can't forget to harvest this one when I get home today

When the dust cleared Saturday afternoon, Benjamin and I had planted the following:

• Chinese Mosaic Long Beans
• Rattlesnake Pole Beans
• Contender Green Beans
• Roma Italian Beans
• Purple Hull Pinkeye Peas
• Ozark Razorback Peas

Over the course of the next few days, we'll be getting lots of seed in the ground. Tomorrow I'd like to tell you about one more seed that we planted on Saturday - one that Benjamin is REALLY excited about, as am I.  It was planted on the row directly to the right of the turnips shown below.

A new crop for us

I want to show you something interesting and totally new (for us) that we planted in tomorrow's post.  Tune in tomorrow as we discuss it and show you the seeds.