Peas Please

Peas went into the ground a few days ago (I'm a little behind on my blogging). According to my records from last year I wasn't close to planting any seeds in the ground yet. So I feel a slight triumph at just being able to plant some things at all right now.

I soaked these peas in water overnight. Just before going to bed the night before I poured the peas in a cup (as seen above) and filled it with water so that all the peas were submerged. The next morning, the first thing I did that day after breakfast was go out and plant those peas.

To make planting easier and faster I thought that I would try something different. I took a plastic mixing spoon from the kitchen which I never use and measured out a couple inches on the end of the handle, marking the inches with electrical tape. My spacing for planting was one inch apart, an inch deep and the rows six inches apart to create a double row, which I read was a more efficient use of space as opposed to single rows. Using the spoon handle I pushed the end in to the one inch mark and repeated. My actual spacing was about three inches for the peas, but it should be just fine. Into each hole I poked one of the seeds and covered them all up when I was done.

I have been watering every day and continue to have high hopes for a pea harvest this year. Last year was a total failure.

Today I prepared a whole new pea bed to plant tomorrow. I'm determined to get peas! This row is at the opposite end of the garden as the first row I planted a few days ago. I worked in plenty of compost too. I guess we will find out within a ... week (?) if I did alright.

Onion Set Planting Time

Things are going in the ground in the garden. I purchased a few scoops of onion sets from my local garden store. For about $2.50 at $1.75 per pound I got enough red, yellow and white onions to plant at least two 15' rows of each.

Anyway, I went about planting some of my sets last week. Onions are fine to plant when the soil temperature has reached 35 degrees. Sets are easy to plant. I space them approximately six inches apart and poke them in the soil so that they are covered by about a half inch of soil. You always want to plant them in the appropriate orientation so that the rooted end is on the bottom when its going in the ground.

One thing I have been thinking about is what vegetables are the most economical to grow in your own garden. Some are fun to grow and tastier than store bought versions but definitely not economical for sure (corn and peas come to mind). However, I was thinking about these little onion sets and was wondering... is it very economical to grow your own onions? I've determined that they are. When visiting the grocery store, I was picking out a red onion to buy and took note that the price per pound for the onion was ... somewhere around $1.35. So for full grown onions they were comparable in a general sense to the price per pound for the onion sets which were $1.75. If I was mathematically inclined I could make some interesting illustrations right now I am sure, but just imagine all those tiny onion sets growing in size and value as they mature... because as my boyfriend pointed out, if the onion set increases six times its size... essentially you've increased your investment by as much. Pretty cool!

Suprise Snake Bathroom Visitor

A snake in my bathroom?

Last night just as I finished brushing my teeth I was met with a surprise. A cute little garter snake. It was quietly (as if snakes are anything else) peering up at me from the bath rug. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I have to say it quite startled me. "There's a snake in the bathroom!", I announced loudly for all of the house to hear.

It was a bit on bigger side for the garter snakes I've seen around here, especially the poor injured one I found in the kitchen this winter thanks to the cat. Could this be one of his relatives? Probably. As we seem to have a nice healthy population of garter snakes around here, I wouldn't be surprised if they were all semi related to all the ones we believe live in the crawl space under the house. Which may just be where he came from.

Since we are going through a bit of an 'unseasonably warm' heat wave, all the doors and windows were open to air out the house. The hypothesis stands that the snake just came in through one of the open doors from their home under our home. Which was exactly right where I returned this guy.

However easier said than done. These little guys are really tough! Unbelievably strong is more like it. He slithered away into a crevice in a corner and then turned himself into a pretzel of snake. Not even a coil as one would expect of a snake. A total pretzel ball of muscle. Every attempt to gingerly pull him out of this position seemed fruitless as it only re-shifted its position and re-wedged himself in this space. This reminded me of the time I found a snake under one of burners of the range top... it tried to escape into the oven and when I tried to pull on it, it was impossible because the snake had wound itself around elements inside the stove. Anyway eventually all of my taunting must have made my bathroom visitor uncomfortable and it somehow found an escape gape in the trim and ventured out onto the open floor where he was easier to grab hold of. "You should put gloves," my boyfriend observed, "what if it bites?". I've handled many garter snakes and have never faced any aggression, they are as harmless as toads.


And no, this isn't some April fools joke, even though the timing was appropriate.