More Pea Action

Yesterday's barley planting took a mere three oz of barley. I'm curious to see what the return on that investment will be.

Today was all about peas. I'm still pondering trellises. The plan was to do three rows of peas in one of the raised beds. We did the middle row and set up a trellis using two 5' 9" stakes and some of the chickenwire we had in the basement - looks better and sturdier than I'd hoped.

Planted 20 peas over 4'. Going to plant a row behind and in front, but need to figure out a different trellising scheme so I can get at the peas in the middle.

Fencing and Sowing

The fence is DONE!

It was a long slog but it's finished. I just hope it keep those genetically enhanced deer out.

Monday was rainy, so no progress, but today was sunny, although cool. So carrots, onions, and barley went in. Carrots and onions were planted in small holes in some landscaping fabric. Hope that works out ok. I'm not sure if the seeds will find their way up through the fabric, I'm hoping they will. If not we can always make the holes bigger or lift up the fabric. For the barley I just spread 3 oz of seed as evenly as I could over the 3' x 8' chunk of the bed devoted to it. Then I tossed a little peat moss on top and watered all of them.

Over the weekend got a major score at a yardsale - a bunch of tomato towers, those plastic things you fill with water to keep tomatoes happy in cold water. Going to set some tomatoes outside later this week. Over two weeks early! Just feels wrong. Also picked up a potato grower thingie, basically black plastic sheet with some holes in it. Will give that a shot as soon.

Flower Power

The dandelions were nutritious. Not good, but good for you. I suppose the way to eat them is to smother them in bacon or something, but it would have been more exciting if they tasted good. The Mrs. sauted them in olive oil with a little balsamic vinegar, garlic, green onion (from the garden!) and wild garlic. So bitter! Like spinach, but far more unpleasant. Oh well. I'd like to try again if we can figure out how to de-bitter them. Maybe they're better raw. I ate a few in the yard while harvesting, those were somewhat better.

Today's harvest from the lawn was violets. Making violet syrup. About a cup and a half of the flowers. Should net me a pint of syrup.

Step 1, clean off the flowers gently, then cover them with boiling distilled water. Let sit for 24 hours. Then add lemon juice and sugar and boil it down. Here's where I am so far.

First harvest

The first harvest is complete. "What? So early?" you say aghast. Indeed! But this bounty has sprung not from raised beds, but from the lawn. Yes, in a few minutes I managed to gather a huge bowl of dandelion greens and a small bowl of wild garlic.

The dandelion greens were easy to identify - they've got big yellow flowers - you may have seen them :)

The wild garlic was pretty easy to identify as well. When cut there was the overpowering aroma of garlic. I searched online to ensure I wasn't eating hemlock or something, and sure enough, they would seem to be wild garlic. They loomked a lot like chives. Wild onion is apparently similar, but while wild garlic has rounded stems, wild onion stems are flattened.

In my surfing, I also noticed that violets are edible. We've got lots of them. They don't know it yet.... but I'm coming for them MU-hahahahaha.

Anyway, every site I visited said to be super careful what you eat off your lawn. I'd add don't eat it if you have your lawn sprayed with weedkiller! So. Then. BE CAREFUL WHEN CONSIDERING EATING YOUR YARD.

Strawberry Flowers

Strawberry flowers poking up. We laid straw over the strawberries last fall, and they haven't come back so well. Also lots of weeds. But we should get something at least.

The peas are looking good. Two more posts up, four to go. Need to get the fence up and done by next weekend, there's stuff to plant then. Also need to get a few bags of manure to spread on the beds.

Tomato Seedlings

Here's a picture of the tomato seedlings.

And after the thinning.

And the fence thus far.

Pea-ruption

The peas are up. I set up a crude (well, ok, more than crude, extremely curde) trellis for them. Not sure if it will help.

Sugar snap pea

The garden fence is coming along. There was some last minute concern that we'd need to get some sort of permit from the township, but it turns out that our fence is not a fence according to the town rules. Weird, but yay! I guess they only care about fences on property lines.

So Saturday we set three posts two feet down in concrete. That should be strong enough to keep them bastages out. The Mrs. decided she didn't like the look of the posts, so we'll probably paint them so they blend in more (perhaps dark green?). Also will plant something climbing to hide the posts. Morning Glory for now, perhaps roses later.