Peas in the ground,
Peas in the ground,
Feelin’ kinda cool with my peas in the ground!
(Whaddya think? Am I ready for American Idol?)
Thanks to my cold frame, I planted peas today. I was reminded that it’s only March 9 here in central NY (zone 4b) by the snow still covering most of the garden but lately we’ve been having quite a run of sunny spring-like weather. (Now that the sun is higher in the sky, I have to remember to vent the frame or it will be 75 – 80 degrees inside.) So today was a great day to open it up, clean out the plants that had succumbed to the cold and get started with some new things for spring. Here’s a view showing what survived – spinach, carrots, claytonia, mache (corn salad), and some pretty cold hardy lettuce.
To make room for the peas, I harvested any plants that were growing within six inches or so of the edge of the frame. Here’s the result – tonight’s salad greens, waiting to be washed (see the itty-bitty carrots in there?).
According to my guide in this adventure, The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman, now’s the time to put peas in along the back (taller) wall of the cold frame. By the time the seedlings have reached the top covers, the weather will be warm enough that I won’t need to close the frame completely, and I’ll be able to put in a makeshift fence for them to climb. I should be able to just keep raising the back edges of the windows until I remove them completely for the summer.
After today’s clean-out, there’s room for some short rows of fresh plantings of lettuce, chard, radishes, and other spring greens. In another couple of weeks, I will also start some seeds in pots for later transplanting elsewhere in the garden. Tomatoes and peppers and a few other things will still have to be started inside under grow lights though but these will eventually be hardened off in the cold frame prior to being transplanted to their permanent garden home. I will also be planting more snap peas, plus regular (shell) and snow peas in the open beds after the snow is gone. I only put in this 12’ row of Sugar Ann snap peas today to get a jump on one of the great delicacies of the spring season.
It was very pleasant working in the garden for the first time this year. There was no wind, the robins and mourning doves were singing, the wild turkeys were squabbling and the sun was shining. What could be better?
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