Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Romaine and Lettuce, Oh My!

This year I have resolved to plant more vegetables from plants bought at the nursery since our vegetable season here in Las Vegas can be a bit crazy and any head start is a good one.  But, there are still some seeds that really only should be direct seeded.  Some of those I got planted this weekend.

March can be a bit unpredictable going from really cold to somewhat warm.  The nights are colder, so seed starting can be a bit iffy.  But not with the veggies I planted, i.e. sugar snap peas, snow peas, lettuce and romaine (yes I know it's a lettuce, but it's specialness deserves it to stand on it's own!).  These seeds don't need it to be real warm, but they do need the moisture to germinate as is with all seeds so I do a little hand watering just in the areas where they are planted.  Also, one seed I didn't start but should be now is spinach.  I just didn't get it in because the planter it is set to go in was overrun with mint and I was just too lazy to clean it out.  Those will be done next weekend.

Above is one of my six planters designated for veggies and fruits.  Every Fall and early Spring, I add a 2 cubic feet bag of compost and 1 small bag of composted manure.  I lightly dig it in and then it's ready to go.  I have a large drip line that goes the whole diamater of the planter and then I run drip lines from side to side every 6" that have a drip outlet every 6".  I then put my square foot gardening grid on top of that.  Normally you would slightly bury your drip line, but I like to keep it on top because seedlings and seeds have their roots at the very top and can dry out quick if your drip line is below those roots.  Now Mel Bartholomew who invented Square Foot Gardening usually has his squares 4' x 4' that consists of 16 squares to plant in, but I have some difficulty reaching in 4'.  He says for kids you can make a 3' x 3' square to easily reach in, but that only has 9 squares.  I want the maximum so I have adapted his design to a rectangle which is 7' x 3' giving me 21 squares!  And I'm proud to say, they have done the same design at my kids elementary school, O'Roarke Empowerment School!

The first seeds I planted were the sugar snap peas and snow peas.  I have a special fondness for peas and beans because one of my earliest memories of a vegetable garden is of a relatives private garden (they were farmers) in Kansas.  Every evening we would walk out to her bean plants and pick them for dinner and she would give us some raw ones to snack on.  Now, green beans are pretty tasty to snack on raw, but sugar snap peas are heaven!  They really are just as good raw (and maybe better) than steamed.  One thing I use on my pea and bean seeds is an inoculant, which helps them fix the nitrogen into the soil.  It isn't required, but it will increase your yields so I always use it.  I can't seem to find it anywhere here in Las Vegas, but I have found it in a nursery in S. Cal.  You can order it from any of the seed catalogs.  I would recommend Vermont Bean & Seed Co. because they do have the best selection of bean and pea seeds and supplies. 



Just seeds



Seeds with inoculant



For each square you can plant 8 pea or bean seeds per square.  Since these will grow up a trellis, I make a small trench along the back of the square to place the seeds.  Not every seed is guaranteed to germinate (or sprout) so I plant 2 seeds per spot, totalling 16 seeds per trench.  Once they start breaking through the surface, I take some small scissors and snip off the smaller plant at the surface so I don't disturb the delicate roots by pulling, leaving 8 seedlings.  In the left picture above is the trench with the seeds, the picture on the right is the seeds with inoculant scattered over them.  Pea and bean seeds take nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil.  Nitrogen is very important in the development of leaves.  You have too much, you'll get a plant with lots of leaves but few veggies, fruits or flowers.  Since they fix the nitrogen themselves, I usually only use half the manure (a strong source of nitrogen) in that planter.  And because these plants are a good source of nitrogen, I tend to include leafy greens and herbs in the same planter since they will benefit best from this feature.  The back side of the planter now has 4 squares of sugar snap peas and 3 squares of snow peas planted.  Once they start growing, I'll add a trellis for them to climb up.

The next seeds I planted were Parris Island Cos (another name for Romaine).  For lettuce and romaine, you can plant 4 plants per square.  Leafy greens are best direct seeds because any disturbance of their roots can cause them to bolt (go to seed) and will become bitter.  In the left picture above I have placed 4 holes to plant my lettuce seeds.  In the right picture you can see how small the lettuce seeds are so instead of trying to pick out two seeds to plant, I just take a small pinch and drop them into the whole.  An important thing is when you cover the seeds, only lightly cover them with the soil and don't tamp them down.  You want to keep your soil as loose as possible.  As soon as you plant any seeds, you want to water them so the soil is damp, not flooded.  Use a light setting, like shower, on your nozzle so you don't disturbe and move the seeds.  Keep the soil damp until they have germinated and have their first set of true leaves.  If you allow it to dry out before then, you can easily kill the seedling. 

I also planted another leafy lettuce variety, Black Seeded Simpson.  Most lettuce seeds are a light grey color, but this variety has black seeds.  It does pretty well in this area.  I'll probably pick up a couple more lettuce varieties, one of those being a red color.  If you can, get a variety of colors in yours veggies.  Some are actually more nutritious (purple carrots), but they are a lot of fun!

I like to walk my garden every day.  Not necessarily work in it, but you should walk it.  Not only is it therapeutic, but you learn a lot about it and will notice the slightest changes.  Today I went out and saw 3 different lizards running through the planters.  And because I'm out there so often, they are pretty use to me and don't run off as easily.  These little guys freak my husband Rick out, but I love them.  Not only are they entertaining, but they keep my garden healthy by maintaining a healthy level of insects.

I hope you all learn something from this post and it inspires you to get out and work your soil and get some seeds planted.  As I said before, this month is a great month to get your peas and leafy greens direct seeded.  Next month, you can direct seed your beans and start getting transplants of tomatoes and some herbs planted.  Who needs aspirin when you have a garden!