Peas

Two things I love fresh from the garden are peas and tomatoes. I could do without everything else and would be quite happy. Last year was my first attempt at gardening. In our Eagle Mountain house we had no yard for a garden whatsoever so my attempts at gardening consisted of planting 2 tomato plants at the end of my planter beds in the back.

Last year I decided to do the Square Foot Gardening method with raised beds. I bought my peas and put them in the ground around St. Patty's day and waited for my harvest. They came, but very slowly and when all was said and done I enjoyed about 10 of them total. I had no idea what I had done wrong, so this Spring I did a little research to figure out what I need to do right this time around.

This year I soaked the peas 3 or 4 days before planting them to give the germination process a kick start. I also decided to put walls of water around some of the peas after I planted them to keep them a bit warmer. I know they work well for actual plants so I figured I might as well try them with seeds. I'm glad I did because there have been several nights, where I thought for sure even the walls of water wouldn't be enough to keep my peas alive. But sure enough, they helped immensely. Utah Springs are notorious for being freezing and then blazing hot. Peas don't like that. They like nice cool weather.

Here is a picture of my peas growing happily in their wall of water. They were planted 3 or 4 days before St. Patrick's day. They are now sending out feelers to climb, so it is time to take off the water and put my trellis up.



This is a picture of my peas that I planted a few days after St. Patrick's day without a wall of water. They were soaked the same amount of time before planting. A HUGE difference. I will actually be surprised if I get many peas from these. I'm going to bet that it will get too hot before they can start producing. I guess we'll see.



I also experimented with where I planted my peas in my raised beds. Because the beds are raised, the soil warms up a lot quicker in the Spring, but it cools off faster as well. I planted 2 squares of peas with walls of water. One was planted on the outside corner and the other in the middle. The middle one looks significantly better. So next year - all my peas will be planted in the middle with water.

Are you wondering why I am blabbing on and on about peas? Because next year, when I try to remember what worked and what didn't I can look back and read this. I want to have so many peas, I don't know what to do with them. This gardening thing is definitely a learning process - but worth it!

I also planted my tomatoes (with walls of water), broccoli and onions today. For tomatoes I planted 1 Celebrity and 1 Sweet 100. I loved the Sweet 100 last year. They are cherry tomatoes, so I would just go out and literally graze on them daily. This is the second time around for my broccoli. I planted a bunch a few weeks ago and they all ended up dying because of the cold. Now I just have to wait a few more weeks until I finish putting in all of the rest of my stuff!