Remember how I was bragging a few days ago about how spring was here, I'm working outside, etc? Zoom in on today's forecast, 5-8 inches of snow expected. Great. Two steps forward and one step back. I'm really glad I held off on sowing seeds outdoors, and it wasn't just my laziness this time, it was totally planned. The old farmer's tale here in zone 6ish is planting peas on St. Patricks Day. That's always seems kind of iffy for me. For anyone who did plant peas, they might be okay - I'd just expect way lower germination rates. Peas don't mind the cold, but cold and wet doesn't work quite as well. The good news about this snow delay - is it gives all you slackers who've told me over and over that you want to grow some of your own vegetables a little more time to get things organized. Peas are seriously the easiest thing to grow. Grab a pot, throw in some organic potting mix either put a stick from your yard, or a bamboo stake in it (these baby's like to climb) put it in a sunny location, and have your 4 year old plant the seeds. Done. Oh, and you don't even need to fertilize. Peas, like all legumes, are fix nitrogen in the soil, so they basically fertilize themselves. You'll be eating fresh sugar snap peas in a few weeks, and after that I'm pretty sure you'll be hooked. The peas will be done producing right around the time that tomatoes get planted (around here they say May 15th, but I stick with Memorial Day, same reason as mentioned above) so cut off the pea vines (leave the roots, the nitrogen thing again) and stick a tomato plant in there. It's not rocket science.
For today I'll have to console myself with indoor seed starting.
These were taken years ago, on an obviously much nicer day than today. It was probably one of those fluke nice days in early spring, and my then 3-year old and 6 year old were assisting with the pea planting.
No comments:
Post a Comment