peppers and peas

On Friday, I got to make good use of our enhanced watering tools--a 100' hose and caddy, which means we'll be able to get water on the garden a lot easier this year.

Nathan put in about ten peppers earlier in the week, and they look great.  We have five sweet peppers and a variety of five hot pepper plants.  (And we might do more.)  The seedlings look good--even the watermelon and squash have sprouted.  The tomatoes look terrific.

(one of the new peppers)

The snow peas are blooming fast now, and the plants have reached the top of the fence.  We're going to have a LOT of snow peas.  I hope they'll keep blooming for a while--I'm at a playwrights conference in Idaho for two weeks, so I fear they'll be gone by the time I get back.  Tracy will handle coordination of watering and volunteers while I'm gone (we need lots of help).  I imagine the garden will look quite different in two weeks.

(snow peas to the top of the fence)

Peas are up (and sidewalk getting replaced)

As you can see from the thin green line snaking up along the fence, the snow peas that we planted have sprouted and are doing quite well.  We've got nearly 180 feet of snow peas, ready to climb.  The weather has been damp and warm, which has suited them well so far.  A sunny weekend will help out a lot, too.

The soil is still pretty mounded pretty high, and we'll need to smooth it out before we can plant more seeds, but we'll need to wait another week or so, to make sure that we don't bury the snow pea seedlings. 

It turns out they're replacing the sidewalk at the bottom 20 feet of the garden.  So far, it looks like the workers have done a good job at not trashing this section of the garden, but it's hard to know how careful they can be when they have to pour the new concrete.   It seems likely we'll lose the snow peas in this section, but since they're hitting it early, hopefully we won't have any big disruptions like this for the rest of the season.

Peas are up!

I'm back from vacation (the kids were on spring break) and was very happy to see that the snow peas are up. They're just an inch or two high, but they look good.  We were supposed to have rain today, but it's waiting, waiting.  (I'm probably the only person in Boston hoping for rain.)  A little rain will help a lot.  Right now we have four 10-foot blocks of peas.  Once they're done, we can replace them with squash or melons.

The plants are still plugging away in the greenhouse.  The harsh environment has been tough on them, but I think the plants will come around once they get in the ground.  We'll have a planting day on May 8th, for some of the plants (beans and chard).  The tomatoes and peppers and squash will have to wait until later in May.