The Best Peas

I've started peas in cell paks as I always do to get a jump on the season. We like Super Sugar Snap peas the best. You don't have to shell them, which gives you much more good tasting crunch and saves a lot of time. Super Sugars are earlier than the regular Sugar Snap peas, not quite as tall so they don't get blown off the fence as easily in a wind storm, bigger and less prone to mildew. Supposedly they're not as sweet at the old time Sugar Snaps, but I think they're every bit as good. We start two rounds of them about 10 days apart for a longer season. They don't freeze very well, so we just eat them fresh and raw, straight from the garden, or very lightly steamed (just enough to warm them through).

Other garden news: broccoli and cabbage are planted, to be transplanted into cups as soon as the first true leaves unfurl. They'll go out into the garden around the first of April, depending on the weather. Lettuce, kale, arugula and mustard are up, also parsely, cutting celery and chives. Snapdragons, feverfew and some dianthus are also up and growing. Snapdragons and feverfew are super hardy and can tolerate a good bit of freezing weather.

Bluebirds are warbling, the yard is full of robins, the geese are flying over in big flocks, and I heard the first redwing blackbird. Now I'm just waiting for some warmer weather to get going on a million outside projects!

Starting Seeds!

Feb. 4th was a good root day according to the BD calendar, moon in virgo. It would have been better had the moon been waxing, but nothing's perfect! I planted two kinds of leeks, King Richard which is a big one that holds well in cold weather, and Tadorna, a summer leek with a nice long stem that matures early. We sell lots of these at the market. For onions, we love the Sierra Blanca white sweet onion. (It used to be called Superstar). It's wonderfully mild and sweet, large and beautiful and it keeps quite well too. It also matures early, and we sell oodles of them all summer. We grow Copra yellow onions, a very good keeper, and as for red, we switch around according to what's available. We're tried Mars, Mercury, and this year we're trying Red Bull. The red onion sprouts tend to damp off easily, so water with care and give plenty of air circulation. We also have problems some years with root maggots. The tiny fly lays eggs in the flats, and the larva, very small white grubs, eat the bulb and stem almost as soon as it germinates. The last few years I've been sprinkling generous amounts of diatomaceous earth on the soil in the flats before I plant, then put the seeds right on top of it, cover with a sprinkling of more soil and water it all in. I believe it helps. Giving onion seeds a loose, sandy mix also helps with damping off.