urban vegetable patch

10 days after the first flower appeared, I see pea pods!! You can only imagine how excited I was. Snow peas are currently selling for $14.99/kg in the market! $14.99/kg,  are you kidding me?

2 Pea Pods

On the upside, I’ve now got peas! On the downside, I got only 2 peas. I don’t think I can do much with it. Oh well! Before I get all excited and all, I thought I will jot down some points for future reference.

My maturing Snow pea plants

So these are my notes:

• They are a cool climate vegetable. Plant either early spring or late Autumn
• They are really really easy to care for. I will even go as far as saying you can plant and forget about them.[link to previous post]
• Pea seedlings are really susceptible to bugs. I am not sure what bugs (my guess is earwigs) but I lost 2 seedlings due to their ferocious appetite.
• Good in fixing nitrogen in the soil. Plant them after harvesting hungry crops (Eg: Brocolli, tomatoes)
• It takes about 2 months to grow from seedling to flowering stage. Once they flower, pea pods will appear shortly, usually within a week.
• Not all sweet peas needs trellis. I bought a dwarf sweet peas from Diggers that are advertised as “No trellis needed”.
• I do not intentionally fertilise them except for the occasional left overs in my watering can of fertiliser.

Things I have read about but have not and will not want to experience

• They are susceptible to mould/fungus known as powdery mildew. This has not happened to me, but I try to only water the roots using the spout of the watering can

Snow peas flowers!!

I thought I would never see the flowers from my snow peas but the day has come. After buying some seedlings from Bunning in early August, I stupidly realise that peas are more of an Autumn – Winter plant then a Spring – Summer plant. Oops! That would teach me to read before buying.

I did not really tend to them much after transplanting except for watering and the occasional splash of leftover liquid fertilizer. No surprise, some died, others eaten by bugs of unknown species.

So there I was, minding my own business and doing the usual gardening type things and ‘Whoooo, is that…..?’ Oh yes. Surprise indeed. I am now like a praying hawk (more like a mother realising the potential in her long neglected child), waiting for the emergence of the sweet, sweet peas.

I am the procrastinator queen. After moving into our current home over 1 year ago, I finally got my act together and got my backyard done. The result, as you can see below, is a usable vegetable patch of 6m x 1.3m using treated timber. The bottom was filled with local area soil and topped off with compost. Not only have I made the place look so so much better but I turn a once piece of  un-usable land into a workable vegetable patch. I am so proud of myself.

garden before the big makeover

Garden after. OMG!

Garden hawk-eye view

The plants that I am currently growing:

• Snow peas
• Soya bean (edamame)
• Rock melons
• Tomatoes – 1 red fig and 3 of unknown spices grown from a seed mix
• Spinach
• Bok Choi
• German Chamomile – currently growing in container.

I am fertilising the green vegetables weekly with a weak organic liquid fertiliser and boy are they growing like crazy! Spinach leaves are harvested weekly by picking the outer ones and leaving the center to grow.

Not sure about the Bok Choi though. They are not growing as well but I will with-hold my judgement for now; The weather has been cold in Melbourne for a couple of weeks and probably it is the heat that is the missing ingredient.

Snow Peas

Bok Choi and soya

Ha-ogen Rockmelons

Red Fig Tomato

Corn

German Chamomile