It's February, Have you planted yet?

Give them support since they like to climb.

Thanks Stephanie!

Gymgirl,

I have planted peas many times. I usually just start with the seeds and you need to use an innoculant with the seeds. I do anything from putting some of it in a bag and adding the seeds and shaking it or just dumping some in the hole after I put the seed in. What I have used is very black and that is why I put the seed in first, so I can tell the innoculant went into the hole. I am a lousy aim. What kind are you planting? Depending on what kind you plant, a 30" fence usually is good enough to hold them up. I like the edible pod kind. You will love them! Marilyn

What is the innoculant for? I know peas will grow without it, but does it improve production?

Um, I forgot about innoculant, and planted the peas today. Totally forgot...

I think it's helpful the first time you plant peas or beans in a bed. It helps the plants to fix nitrogen msrobin, but that's what beans and peas do anyway - take the nitrogen out of the air and "fix" it so their roots can use it. Not sure of that's a good way to explain it or not - lol. Innoculant is not necessary - I never use it personally and have killer pea and bean crops...

thank you, Kel. How cold hardy are peas? We had a beautiful, sun-shiney 60 degrees today. Next Wed, Thur & Fri, low temps expected in the 30s. I just planted out the WSed Wando peas and will need to protect them.

How low can they go? Sounds like a limbo contest...

The peas once they are good size can handle cold - probably into the mid 20s. It is the blooms that are frost tender. Since your's are small I would cover them if you are going to get that cold...

Never heard of using an innoculant. Is there a brand name or something for that?

I don't think anyone has poorer soil than I do. Last spring I planted a row of cowpeas in a convenient area that barely supported weeds. When they finished I cut the old plants at ground level instead of pulling them out. Then I planted a different variety of cowpeas right in the old row simply by pushing them down with my finger. I also cleared space for a second row but they were sickly and got a bad case of rust. The second crop in the first row grew like crazy and produced until frost. There was an obvious big difference with the addition of the nitrogen that they fixed on those roots. Free fertilizer.

The moral of the story is that anytime I have some open space, if nothing else, it's a good idea to plant some of those dirt cheap cowpeas to benefit whatever might follow. I like to eat them too.

i'm in ujpstate new york and i will begin my hot peppers in a day or two and my tomatoes mid april. while DC, PA, and parts of maryland
got hit with tons of snow we did not get even one flake.

i did hear on the radio that the weather community expects these snow storms to last through march.

I've set out lettuce in raised beds and cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower in plastic mulch, mainly to make more room under my grow lights. They'll get double row covers this coming week. We're expecting snow tommorrow and lows in the upper teens.

Those lettuce are just beautiful. You're very brave and I wish you luck.

Well twiggy, what gives me hope is last year we had a very late freeze at the end of April (I had already set out tomatoes and peppers as well) and everything survived, even without row covers, so knock on wood, maybe they will again.

Pretty lettuces! We've nursed our lettuce bed through the winter and they're still going. Not sure if we'll keep it for the spring or harvest everything and start all over again.

Stephanie, I see you have Black Seeded Simpson as well, which is one of my favorite to grow. Seed's cheap, growth is excellent, and it produces a very large head if you don't harvest the leaves early (which is how we sell it at our farmers markets).

Yes, I do. I'm not a big fan of it, though. I'm not real sure of what it is that I don't care for, I think it's floppiness. We eat it, though!

Steph,
That overturned container looks sorta like a headstone on that "bed" of lettuce. Don't give me any ideas here for additional growing space! Paradise South is right up the street...

On another note, I need serious advice from my Zone 8-9 growers. I feel like there's something more I should be doing besides walking around looking at the cabbages growing heads, peeking inside the WS jugs, and watering stuff. I still have unplanted spaces, but I don't know what to put in them right now.

The one raised bed is only partially planted, and yesterday I went ahead and transplanted those Wando peas to the back row. I'm gonna rig a TP bean trellis along the back side. I also grabbed one 'a the jugs of Mustard Green seedlings and did a HOS in some of the open squares in that raised bed. Problem is, we're heading to Wed, Thurs, & Fri this week in the 30s...I can cover the entire bed without damaging the seedlings, so they should be ok...

But the other raised bed is just sitting there, empty. Something should be in there growing, but what? Also, I've got 5 empty patented EBs, and at least 10-15 empty eBuckets (stuff that didn't make it...) Something should be growing in all these vessels right, but what?

Here's my growing list for the spring: the WS tomatoes, bell peppers, & mustards, & the lettuce that's germinating right now; also eggplants, okra, squash, cowpeas (we LOVE beans), watermelons, the Wando peas, and Kentucky Wonder Bush and Pole beans. The spinach I sowed in the raised bed is coming up, but ohhhhhhhh so slowly. I've never grown spinach before, so I don't know if anything's wrong or not at this point.
Finally, I've got 4 collards growing in 2 EBs.

Am I in a bona fide holding pattern right now until the seedlings get big enough to plant out in these areas, and am I just spazzing out for nothing? Or, is there something else I coud be doing right now?

Help.

Gymgirl I think you're in the same boat as me. It's getting a bit late to start cole crops and I will need the space for my warm season stuff by mid march - early April. The only things I can think of that might have time to produce are lettuce, radishes and pak choi. Nothing ever produces for me as fast as the catalogs say. You could maybe direct sow some greens and just compost what isn't used by the time you need the space for those summer things.

I have more rain and cold in the forecast and of course that will make sure everything stays slowed down.

Onions!

Twiggybuds ~ I am glad to hear you say

Linda - twiggy is right. Slap some radishes, pak choi and/or lettuce in those open spots. They are quick. You might still have time for beets too. Maybe not time to get big beets, but definitely for the greens which is the reason I grow beets - lol. You can also try direct seeding some upcoming crops like eggplant or squash. Just plant the seeds, water well and cover with a cloche made from a milk jug or pop bottle with the bottom cut off. That little trick helped me to direct seed and germinate TOMATO seeds the first week of January...

Gymgirl,

I have my Clemson Extension Home Vegetable Gardening Book in front of me - it is my Bible on when to plant what. For February (and I am considered Central South Carolina) it suggests: asparagus, beets, broccoli (later in the month), cabbage (transplants), carrots, lettuce, mustard (transplants), onions, garden peas should have gone in in January (although I plant my edible peas later than that), Irish potatoes, radish, spinach, and turnips. That is what the book says but not necessarily what I do. My life and the planting times do not always go together, so I often plant in early March. I do not have row covers yet so I am uneasy about planting some things too early. As I have said somewhere else, I am playing - I do not need my vegetables to survive - just having tons of fun and good things to share with others. After reading all these areas for the last week or two, I am about to become a more serious gardener! All of you are an inspiration to me and I am going to have to get with the program. I just had someone come look at my watering system and I found out it can be raised to hit my higher boxes! That will help tremendously as I have a hard time watering when the temps get over 95 degrees here. Hope I listed something you can plant in your empty spaces. M

Thanks, a bunch, Skywatch! It does help!

Gymgirl, you should be able to plant beets, swiss chard, pak and bok choi, nappa cabbage (tenderheart produces a nice head in about 50 days), arugula, radiccio, cress, onions, turnips, mustard and peas. All of these came thru 3 days of 27* weather back in January. The bok choi wanted to bolt after the freeze, so I planted more. We like it small in salads.
You can also buy cheap seeds of different greens and cole crops and do micro greens. I sow them thickly in the seed bed and when they are 2 or 3 inches tall just cut them at the soil line with scissors. Yummie in a salad!

This winter has been colder than normal and things are taking up to twice as long as they should to mature. I read in Territorial's catalog that cold temps can add 3-4 weeks to finish time and hot weather can take up to 3 weeks away.

Thanks, guys. My concern is planting more cole crops seeds now, and not having enough cold weather ahead to bring them to maturity. They'll be growing in spaces I'll need for the spring/summer crops.

I'm having to rotate out from crop to crop, as most everything is growing in eBuckets & EBs. I have two raised beds 4x10 & 4x8. Trying to decide what I can put in them now that'll be done by the time I need to sow seeds for the melons, squash, and sweeties. Right now one of the beds has the turnips, spinach, Wando Peas and some of the mustard green seedlings growing. Everything is still very small, so I need time for them to grow.

The other raised bed is empty. Any advice on this rotation orchestration would be much appreciated!

Here's the eBucket patch out on the concrete launching pad. That pic was taken 1/18/2010.

I'll be outfitting another 15-20 eBuckets for the spring crops, for a total of about 40-45 eBuckets on the concrete launching pad. Each eBucket is considered as one square foot of gardening space, and is planted relatively close to the square foot gardening charts.