Start Me Up

I have been saving and saving my old plastic containers and FINALLY have amassed enough to get one crop started for spring...this is going to have to speed up A LOT!!!

Anyhow, I decided to start my peas tonight for a couple of reasons:

1. Peas like cooler weather and can easily get burned when the sun gets intense. I know that they will do well in the early spring, but I have been assured by people who live here that summer gets quite hot and dry.
2. Peas take a while to get going, and I want them to be significant plants before I transplant them. I am worrying about small animals that might want to snack on tender pea shoots (I don't blame them), so I want to have some solid plants before I put them out into the wilds of the backyard.
3. Starting my peas now means that I have to get my butt in gear and build a place for them to climb.
4. I happened to have my peas saved from last year, and have yet to purchase a lot of the seeds I am planting this year.

I am going to have two different kinds of peas this year - sugar snap peas, and Oregon Trail shell peas (not planned, but funny in a cheesy way nonetheless). Both varieties come from peas I saved from past plantings. Originally both were seeds I purchased through Seeds of Change. This year my goal is to have lots of peas to eat fresh, but I doubt I have enough space to grow peas to put up - we shall see how it goes.


I filled my containers with soil that we got from a local gardening center. Because we are planting into the sheet mulch that is currently composting in the raised beds, I want to make sure that the area around the roots of each plant is nutrient-rich soil so as to mitigate any issues with our little mulch experiment.


I planted two peas per container, 7 containers per pea type. In the end I should have enough plants to run along the full length of one of the raised beds in the back.

Now, here's something very cool that was a total accident. We had a tupperware bin sitting out in front of the house that no one bothered to put away. As the rains came down last week I slid it under a place where our gutter leaks a bit to catch water. I can't say that I have the know-how to fix the gutter at this point, so I figure why not try and turn a problem into a solution? The result is a nice reservoir of rainwater out front that I am using for watering the starts as well as the house plants.


A tupperware bin we never put away becomes a great cachment out front by the rosebush.