Peas and Salad stuff

This is the bed with the chard, spinach and romaine - and a stray garlic or two from last fall - I also put copper tape around this bed, and I will say that the slugs are less then the other bed - the ones I have found ( with my potato slice traps) are really tiny, so clearly the eggs are in the soil. Oh, and beds are wrapped in bird netting - mainly to keep cats and squirrels out.

This is the bed with the broccoli raab, romaine, and radishes

Same bed as above - only two weeks later.  Starting to harvest broccoli raab, lettuce and  radishes.

You can see the chard is already starting to bolt - due to our unseasonably warm weather - but still, lots of spinach salads, love spinach in Italian Wedding Soup - and of course, waiting for the first pea blooms.

If you remember, I planted my peas in peat grow pots under cover end of February - then transplanted them to two beds.  I had everything neatly marked, but then the marks faded - so kind of knew what I had, but had to wait till the bloomed before I knew which kind was what.

First Bloom - Schweizer Riesen

Schweizer Riesen are a heirloom snow pea native to Switzerland.  I figured anything that grew well there would work in Oregon with our cold springs.  The blooms have been prolific, and the pods very tasty.

People ask me all the time if it is too late to "garden" - as if there was only one time to plant seeds, and if you missed that date, it is too late for this year.  While it is probably too late to plant early peas, you can plan on planting peas for fall.  You need to make sure they are maturing when it is cooler (otherwise pods can be starchy and tough).  Since these are 65-70 days, and you want to allow at least a month for production and picking, I would say you can plant again the third week of July.

I have a perfect spot for peas - they get the morning to early afternoon sun, but in the real heat of the day, they are in the shade.  If I plant late July, they will start blooming end of September so I should get another batch of peas then.  Now, that is for snow peas, where you just eat the pod.  Keep an eye on soil temp also - peas like soil temps to be 50 - 75 degrees - you might have to mulch to keep the soil cool enough.