Pea planting time!

According to the Official Farmer Don calendar, today is pea planting day. (Actually last Saturday was, but the weather did not co-operate as it was too wet). The weather is terrific. The sun is out and it must be around 60 or so.  While the ground is not as dry was I might find ideal, it is dry enough to poke a hole and drop a pea into.
 I put the three varieties of seed peas into three separate glasses of water of Thursday night to soak. They were still good and firm when planted today. Soaking the peas helps them germinate.  In years past I inoculated the peas and beans I planted with rhizobia bacteria prior to planting them. This helped the plants in forming the nodes on the roots which produce nitrogen. But since I have now planted either peas or beans in every bed now, and have used the inoculant in every bed, the rhizobia bacteria should already be present in the soil now. The inoculant is a powder and one wets the seeds and then drops them in the powder before planting them.
 I am planting three varieties of peas this year. Early Frosty (which I grew last year), Alaska, and Super Sugar Snap Peas. The first two are traditional peas, which must be removed from the shells before eating, unless you eat them very young before the shells become stringy and tough. And even then, if you want to eat them in the shell, sugar snap peas are the better choice because you can allow them to grow much larger before the shell gets tough.
 I have tripled the space allowed for peas as well, so I should have plenty to can this spring. I planted the peas in two rows, about six inches apart, on either side of the deer netting I use as trellis. Each variety got 10' of double rows. I hope to get two dozen pints to can from this.
 We are now starting to consume more of last years canned veggies.  We haven't canned enough of anything to make it a full year yet. For one, I had no idea how many pints of anything we used. I have been paying closer attention to our consumption rates and have tried to expand the plantings of the things we eat so as to have enough to can for a year.  We tend to eat more corn and green beans than anything else. I canned a good amount of beans last year but no corn. I tried growing an heirloom variety of corn last year, Stowell's Evergreen, and while the taste was good, the yield was not.  This year I am planting a block of Silver Queen, a hybrid that I have grown in the past with success. Sweet corn needs to have close eye kept on it when it's time to ripen. I few days too many on the stalk can be the difference between the best corn ever, and just another ear of corn. It should be eaten or canned as soon after picking as possible because the sugar starts to turn to starch the minute it is picked.

Earliest blooms

The sun finally came out again today and the temps are back near 60 for a high today. So I thought I'd go out into the garden in search of some blooms. My first stop was at a bench out in the woods, which can be seen from the living room windows.

I like this bench because it is in the shade and it's very quiet and peaceful out in the woods. I have a winter daphne planted on either side of it and they are just now starting to bloom.

These are some of the most wonderfully fragrant shrubs you can own, and it's a real treat to have something in bloom at this time of year. They are very delicate rooted so they are very sensitive to any disturbance of their roots. When I planted them, I took my mattock and scared the soil where I was to plant them. Then I mixed up one large bag of ground pine bark, with one bag of top soil and one bag of composted cow manure. I added about a third a cup of ground phosphate (to help form blooms) and a cup of plant tone fertilizer made by Espoma (www.espoma.com). Then I removed the plant carefully from it's pot and placed it on top of the scared ground. Then I mounded the soil mixture around the plants and added about 4" of mulch and watered them in. Mine are on an automatic drip irrigation line that provides 2 gal of water once a week. This is the 4th year since I planted them and they have done surprisingly well, having bloomed each year. I am very proud of these shrubs because winter daphne are such finicky plants.
 Not far away, around the corner but in the same garden, the hellebores have started sending up their bloom buds and it won't be long before they burst open.

I usually go out this time of year and cut back the old foliage on the hellebores to showcase the blooms and because the new foliage will come out in spring.

 I also noticed that the Osmanthus fragrans around the fire pit are still blooming.

We have seven of these shrubs surrounding the patio by the fire pit and a long line of them along the southern edge of our property as a hedge between us and the neighbors. They start to bloom around September and last as long as there is no hard freezes. They have a wonderful citrus like smell when the nights are just starting to get cool and it gets time to start enjoying the fire pit around dusk.
 The last thing I noticed a bloom on is the Star Magnolia.

This large shrub/small tree usually blooms in late February to early March. Many years the blooms get damaged by a late frost. It has a light fragrance and should be planted near a path or a window you can open on a sunny day and enjoy the fragrance on a late winter day.

Turning the compost pile

Winter, or what passes for it here, has arrived. It is cold and wet, having rained hard yesterday. I am certainly glad I have already turned over the soil in the early season beds. This time of year it will take quite some time for the soil to dry out enough to turn it and we are in the time frame for planting peas. I had hoped to put mine out this weekend, but the soil is too wet. The weather forecast is for rain for two days and sun for two days, rinse and repeat for the next week or two. I'll probably put the peas in next weekend, so long as it's not raining. I can't wait for the soil to dry out or it will get too late and the peas will get tough and starchy if they ripen in the hotter temps.
 There wasn't much to do in the gardens today, but I did get on the tractor and turn the compost pile. If you are curious, this is my little tractor here.

 These are the compost bins were the whole process starts.

The pile on the left is the older one. It has the remains of the ornamental grass I cut back a few weeks back, and the bedding of the neighbors barn (seen in the background). It has already taken on a nice rich chocolate color and it was good and hot inside the pile.
 The pile on the right is fresh bedding from this week's clean out.
This is what the two finished piles look like.

The pile on the left is almost gone, maybe a yard left .  I'll be using it and the other pile to amend the summer beds with and to use as mulch on them as well. By that time the pile that is in the bins will be pretty much ready and I'll move it out here to make room in the bins for the summer.
 You can see the standing water behind the pile from yesterday's downpour.

And for those who may be wondering, here are the two surviving chickens.

A view of the garlic bed.

As you can see, the garlic is doing well. We haven't had anything near a hard freeze this year, so they'll keep growing. Even a hard freeze won't do too much harm. Garlic is a pretty hardy plant.

Governor grants a pardon.

 For those of you, like my dear wife (DW) who were concerned about the two roosters' fate, they have gotten a last minute pardon from the governor (me). They will not face the executioners blade this weekend thanks to the hard work of their dedicated counsel (DW) who has found them a new home with a friend of a friend. He will be coming to pick them up tomorrow. And the best news is, he has plans to breed them with his hens. So all is well for them as they are destined for a life as studs.

Turning under the cover crop

The top photo is the cover crop, red clover, and the second is the bed next to it which has had the clover tilled under. I will be planting the spring garden in this bed. From back to front will be potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, chinese cabbage, kholrabi, lettuce, spinach, beets and carrots. My peas will go into the 'bean' row, the one just to the right. I'll planting the potatoes in about a month, and I wanted at least that long for the clover to break down in the soil. It won't be long after that when I transplant the broccoli and cabbage that is currently growing in the seedling racks under lights. Then the seeds for the rest will go in the beds and spring will be just around the corner. By the time all that is harvested, it will be time to plant the fall crop of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and some pumpkins for Halloween, and I will get a second harvest from this bed. After the pumpkins, it will back into a cover crop for the winter and the following year, this will become the 'bean bed'. The 'tomato bed' follows the next year and the last in the rotation is the 'melon bed'. 

 As you can see below, my brussel sprouts still won't form heads. I am relatively certain this will be my last attempt at growing these. While I will eat them, I am not so crazy about them that I must grow them and seeing as how I have had zero success in doing so, it is a good thing I'm not. So no more trying (and failing) for me.

This is a picture of the last of my sprouting broccoli plants. It has about a meal's worth of small sprouts on it.

These are my two hens and two roosters. Say goodbye to the roosters. Their days on this earth are limited (because my budget for chicken food is limited, as is my patience for crowing roosters).

Camelias in bloom

Just a quick post, I took some photos of a Japanese Camellia, called Mr Sam, that has been fooled into blooming by our warm temps here. This  Camellia normally blooms in late winter/early spring here. I hope that some of the buds stay dormant, and I'll get a second bloom in spring. It's going to get down into the teens tonight, so any blooms that have opening will get browned out but good tonight, so I went out and cut most of them and brought them in the house to enjoy.