Time to Plant Peas,Radishes and Broccoli Seedlings!

Time flies by when one is having fun.  It even flies by when one is not having so much fun!  I had a bad cold that lasted three weeks.  

Typical springtime weather means that today it may be 79 degrees Fahrenheit and tomorrow 38 degrees Fahrenheit.  We are definitely subject to possible freezing temperatures at night.  However, it is the perfect time to plant peas and other cool weather crops.  

I did not get any gardening done when I was sick. Finally, on April 20th, I saw that the month of April was slipping away and knew that I had to start getting peas and radishes planted!

Last fall I had cleaned out all the old plants, added compost and raked the bed smooth.  A hard crust had formed on the soil over the winter.  I used a rake to break up the crust and loosen the soil and rake it smooth again.  

In the background you can see I also set up six "Wall-O-Water" season extender tepees which I will use for tomato seedlings in a few weeks.  Right now, the Wall-O-Waters are like miniature greenhouses and are helping to warm up the soil.   

I planted a row of Sugar Sprint Snap Peas.  In the past, I have soaked the pea seeds overnight and then dusted them with legume inoculant before planting.   The legume inoculant has beneficial bacteria which encourages the legumes to form high-nitrogen nodules on their roots.  The nodules result in bigger plants and better yields.  This year, all the inoculant I found in the stores indicated that the seeds should not be soaked and that the inoculant should be sprinkled liberally in the row along with the seeds.  So that is what I did.  As an aside, sprinkling the inoculant liberally resulted in using the entire package of inoculant in that one row of peas!  

I planted a row of radishes right next to the row of peas.

I also planted some broccoli seedlings, making two rows of plants, spacing them 18" apart.

Our spring winds are cold and dry.  Seedlings can sometimes become desiccated and die.  I decided to utilize a row cover to help mitigate the temperatures and wind.  I created the row cover by stapling lightweight row cover fabric on a frame of concrete-reinforcing wire.  This is the same wire that I use to make tomato cages.  I poked  the wire ends into the ground to help hold the whole thing in place.  I felt that it was still too lightweight and could easily blow away in the wind, so I secured it all down with lengths of 2"x4" lumber and a cinder block at each end.  

Now I'm waiting for everything to sprout!