Garden

Since the heat killed my poor little peas, we decided to pull them. Perhaps tomatoes will fare better.

While at the feed store yesterday, my partner and I noticed that they were having a 99 cent sale on all of their plants and vegetable starts. Figuring the peas died and there was a empty space where I pulled up all the spinach that had bolted, we bought four tomatoes all with names we’d never heard of.

Once home we began the arduous task of pulling the peas up, which for the most part came up in one big pull as they seemed to be completely attached to each other, probably for support. Being that there were so many we didn’t bother putting them into our composter because, well, they wouldn’t all fit, so instead opted to put them into the yard debris bin. Peas in, bin full.

The thing about tomatoes is they should be planted deep to develop a sturdy root system. Equally important is making sure they have supports to climb to prevent fruit rot. So after digging holes, filling them with a handful each of crushed oyster shell (to prevent root rot) and Epsom salt (makes the fruit sweet and tasty) we planted each plant and put two of them in the typical wire cages. The other two, since we only had two wire cages, we simply used garden stakes with once down the center and three around the edges to form what looks like a teepee, tying them together with garden twine.

Hopefully these tomatoes will fare better than our peas, most of which had completely dried and papery pods. Figuring I’d test their ability to be saved, I pulled about ten pods and put them in the garage to dry until next year. If they dry correctly, I won’t have to buy new seeds for next year, and if they don’t, well, they were stupid peas anyway since they couldn’t take a little heat.