Pea Diaries - Day 57

A moment of silence, please. The peas are dead. What plants made it past 2 inches high were nibbled off by Flopsy and her gang. I should have been celebrating a harvest soon, but it just didn't happen. Good thing I didn't plant that second half pound bag of seeds this spring. I'll look for another place to plant them for the fall.

On a happier note, I have two of my four tomato plants in the ground with a dozen smashed egg shells for the calcium. I've been eating a lot of scrambled egg whites for breakfast. But I'm not done yet, two more plants to go. Now I've got to figure out how to support these new babies, cages, stakes, more copper structures? Maybe I could solder a copper pipe cage. Hmm... This calls for a trip to the hardware store!

I went to the Mecca of gardening centers on Tuesday. All those tomato seedlings I planted? scorched. I left them out in the direct afternoon sun too long. I was so bummed.

So I headed over and bought 4 tomato plants. This gardening center draws folks from southern Baltimore, Annapolis, and eastern side of Washington DC. It's huge. They have everything: vegetables, herbs, perennials, annuals, trees, pond flora, etc. And everything there is for Zone 5. It's not like a catalog where you've got to be careful what you buy, make sure you don't buy something for South Carolina, then it dies in the winter.

I wanted to get some Hostas, too. I've got some shady places in my flower beds that need something and Hostas fit in nicely. However, when you visit Mecca, prepare to pay Mecca prices. I wasn't prepared to spend $25 or even $14.99 for any of the plants I picked out, as pretty as they were. The lady ahead of me in line spent $470 dollars. I got out under $10 for my two heirloom and two regular tomato plants.

I heard on the news radio station which has a gardening "column" to put egg shells in with the tomato plants when you plant them to prevent blossom-end rot. Anyone ever try this? Does it work? How many shells?

I really need to get about 10 yards of mulch. My beds haven't been mulched in years. The weeds are so bad. Some have grown into weed-trees. Sheesh. I really want to hire a gardener. When I was a kid we lived in Okinawa and had a gardener. The image of him tending the hibiscus has stuck with me for years. Now I have a full time job and am often too tired or busy to take care of the flower beds after work. Oh well. maybe some day.

But for now, I need to find places for my new tomatoes and a place for the soon to be relocated lilac bush.

Pea Diaries Day 24

I'm not thrilled with the germination rate of these pea seeds. These are the sprouts from a half-pound bag of seeds. Look at the Day 1 Diary entry and you can see how many seeds are there and how many sprouts are growing now. I may have some burrowing animal issues going on in that bed, too. Oh well. I'll see how these grow and decide later whether to move the bed for a fall planting.

Two forms of ID

Last Friday I went over to the pea patch to check on the status of my emerald delights. The seedlings were just starting to poke through. Then we loaded the car and headed to OC for the weekend.

Monday on my way to work I reach for my work ID, my credential, as I approach the gate. Nada. Gone. It's not in my usual location in the car, in the cup holder tray. I get my driver's licence and check in at the guards' station to get a temporary pass. I then keep my DL handy because sometimes the guards ask for it too when entering the building with a temp ID. By the time I got to my desk the licence was not in my pocket. Hmm. At lunch time I retrace my steps and cannot find it. No one has turned it in to the guards' stations. All the while I'm racking my brain to remember where my work ID might be. Not in my purse, or tote bag. Not in my coat pockets, not in the car. Where could it be, I didn't go far?

How on earth am I going to get another temporary pass tomorrow if I can't find my licence?

As the day wears on, my panic increases. Then I get a call from some woman who found my licence in the hall. She's in her car on the way out for the day. "Can I bring it to you tomorrow?" Aye yai yai. Well, no. I meet her in the parking lot and get my card. Whew.

Monday evening when I get home from work I walk over to check on my peas—did all that rain on Sunday help any? Any more sprouts? And there is my work ID lying in the wet grass.

Pea Diaries Days 1 & 2

Yesterday in the mail I got my box of seeds. I ordered two half-pound bags of garden pea seeds (Alderman & Eclipse), two packs of bell peppers (rainbow mix), and a pack of tomato seeds (Giant Belgium). It's the first time in years I bought tomato and pepper seeds, I usually just buy the plants at the hardware store in June. If I am successful in growing these seedlings, and you live in my town, (I'm not mailing tomato babies), I'll give you a seedling or two. Just ask. (We'll see who is reading this!)

Today I left work early for an appointment and afterward had time to pick a place in the yard for my peas. This house was a model home for the builder when the neighborhood was being built 20 years ago. It's a corner lot and the house faces the intersection (to the southwest) so the front yard is bigger than the back and has better sun, and I usually plant my veggies in in the front. Today I picked a spot of unused soil next to the garage.

Last summer —or was it two summers ago?—I taught myself how to solder copper pipe together and made copper trellises. I made them so the four units are supposed to fit together in a large X formation, but I've never ended up using them like that. Anyway, I prepared the bed for the peas, soaked one pack in warm water (the other variety wants warmer soil so I'll wait a few weeks), sprinkled them over the soil (dirt), covered them up and stuck the trellises in the ground in the middle of the bed. I'm a fan of the "wide row" method of pea growing, instead of one seed two inches apart for the 16 million feet a pound of seed will create. The vines help support themselves this way, too so you don't need to provide a lot of growing support.