Sugar Snap Peas

Farmers and weather, they either worry about too much rain or too little rain. There was a cold spell last week, but I hope from here on out we are solidly past the last frost date for the area. The sugar snap peas are about 3 inches, and looking strong. Give another week and we will be setting up trellis for these climbers.

Chives Beginning to Flower

It took a whole day of working before I noticed the chives about to flower. I harvested 3 plants to within 2 inches from the ground, uncertain exactly whether the leaves will grow back, yellow, or what. Since we have a whole row of these, I expect to make a whole lotta chive dishes next week. I can smell the chive cream cheese already.

Munching on Tat Soi

Tat Soi is in the brassica family. In asian dishes, they are usually cooked, but can also be eaten raw in a salad. Vegetables in the brassica family are susceptible to a variety of pests. These small round holes are the work of flea beetles, which only measure 1/10 inch long. Strong plants can usually tolerate flea beetle damage, but young seedlings may not. Ways to deal with flea bettles include using transplants, timing, trap crops, floating row covers, organic or synthetic insecticides. The seedlings are still tiny, so we will wait and see what method to use to deal with this problem.

Nasturtium

Nasturtiums are an edible flower and disliked by a variety of pests including those that attack brassica plants. It was my grand plan to interplant nasturtiums with all brassicas, but the reality was I only interplanted in the kale rows. There was never enough time to go back to the Tatsoi rows and plant nasturtiums. I may set up an IPM (integrated pest management) garden full of flowers that that can be used for trasnplanting as needed.

Self-seeded Dill Field

This self-seeded dill field impresses the frugal gardener in me, but a row of carrots happen to run right through the field. Supposedly dill and carrots should not be grown close together. They are in the apiaceae family and are taprooted. The multiple taproots will interfere with carrot growth. Dill tends not to do well as transplants, except when they are young and the taproots have not developed yet. They make for a good companion plant for cucurbits (ie: cucumbers, melons, pumpkins) so I will attempt to relocate these.