The Life and (Possible) Death of My Peas

This post is going to be extremely picture-heavy so bear with me!

This has been a great year for my peas, which have grown to a gargantuan size. They're now well over 4 feet tall…. or at least they used to be! I usually use tomato cages as supports for my peas and they're never outgrown the cages, but these plants were head and shoulders above their supports and then we got a windy storm at the end of the week. 

So here is a recap of the peas so far, in case they do not rebound from the damage :(

New shoots and a bunch of new flowers

A tangle of tendrils!

Growing pea pods

Baby Pod!

More baby pictures :)

The tops are blown straight over!

Front view of the damage

My kinda solution to the problem… At least they're off the ground now right?

Some of the stalks definitely appear to have snapped a bit

Or snapped almost entirely off...

A few only look like they got bent though and that's where my hope comes from!

Time will tell on these guys. I'm really hoping that at least some of them are okay seeing as I was really looking forward to some home grown peas!

Quick Update

I stopped by my garden on my way home from work and was astounded at the growth over there! No pictures today as it was raining and I didn't want to risk my camera, but I will put some up tomorrow.

In the course of 3 days my peas have gone from 1 flower to dozens with tons of side shoots starting to grow. I'm pleased, but surprised - I've never had pea plants get this big in the past! The sugar snap are about 4 feet tall and still growing up. They've long-since dwarfed their supports. I'm going to need something else to stick in them for support this weekend or they may topple!

All of my recent transplants (peppers, eggplant and tomatoes) are all settling in very nicely. I only seem to be in danger of losing 1 plant (a Wild Cherry tomato plant that is 50/50 on survival at the moment) and I already have a few bell peppers setting fruit.

The bush beans are starting to get some buds on them which is also great news! In addition, I filled in the few empty spots in the bean patch with my second set of seeds so hopefully I'll be able to have a nice staggered harvest this summer.

And finally, most of my squash family seeds are sprouting! I have almost 100% germination on my zucchini and cucumbers. The winter squash is also starting to poke their heads out of the ground (pumpkins and spaghetti squash). I'm very hopeful on these guys this year. I've never had amazing success with winter squash because of squash vine borers, but I'm convinced this is my year!

Harvest Monday - Kind Of...

My Harvest Monday is less of an actual harvest and more of a "look how well things are growing" post. It's been a long, cold and slow spring here in Massachusetts and it has definitely delayed things for me unfortunately.

My (main) garden this year is at my father's house, but I had to do some serious work before planting could happen. As such, the cold exacted an ever greater toll on my planting schedule than it normally would. Additionally, one of the dogs got a bit curious of my seedlings and I lost all but 12 tomato plants. I actually had to go buy pepper and eggplant seedlings for the first time ever!

This has definitely been an interesting spring, but I think we're finally on the right path now as you can see below!

Peas are going crazy, but not flowering yet...

Beans in the front, followed by Peppers and Eggplant

The first pea flower! This is on one of my "Sugar Snap" plants.

Flowers on the Bell Peppers

Spacemaster Cucumber sprouting :)

First flower on the tomatoes! 

This is on the Black Krim variety - a new one for me this year.

Seed Starting: Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant and Broccoli

I finally got around to starting a significant portion of my plants on March 1st. This is much later that I had originally planned, but I was waiting on a seed order that still has not arrived! As a result, I decided to use up all of my old seeds and will have to save the seed I ordered this year for next year.

Technically the broccoli/cauliflower really should have been started at the beginning of February and the peppers/eggplant in mid February. The tomatoes should be okay, though in the past I always just started them with the peppers/eggplant.

They're all sitting on a heat mat covered in plastic to keep the humidity up, now we just have to wait for sprouts! 

2014 Seed Order

My seeds have been ordered! This year's garden will mostly be using old seeds from a couple years back, but I also wanted to supplement in some newer seeds as well. I only ordered new varieties of seed and will attempt to use up all my old seeds this year and then save what I can at the end of the year.

The shopping cart was:

Description	Unit price	Qty	Amount
TIP OFF ROMANESCO CAULIFLOWER	$1.95 USD	1	$1.95 USD
MISTICANZA MESCLUN (30 days)	$1.75 USD	1	$1.75 USD
HOLLOW CROWN PARSNIP	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
BIG RED PEPPER (75 days)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
CUBANELLE PEPPER (65 days)	$1.25 USD	1	$1.25 USD
HABANERO HOT PEPPER	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
COCOZELLE SUMMER SQUASH (heirloom)	$1.35 USD	1	$1.35 USD
JARRAHDALE SQUASH	$1.35 USD	1	$1.35 USD
TOM WATSON WATERMELON (90 days )	$1.25 USD	1	$1.25 USD
COUSTRALEE TOMATO (heirloom)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
OPALKA TOMATO (83 days)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD

I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds located up in Maine. I ordered from them one other year and was very happy with the quality of what they sent. Plus, they have amazingly cool seed envelopes!

Now comes the hard part… waiting for my order to arrive and then waiting to plant things at the appropriate time. I just want it to be July already!