Sienna Peas
I’ve always grown ‘Green Arrow’ or ‘Little Marvel’, this year I was low on seed and decided to try ‘Sienna’ from Johnny’s Seeds.
So far, I’m quite impressed. They vines are loaded with flowers and small peas. It looks like they will produce peas about 2 weeks ahead of the ‘Little Marvel’ I have planted in half the row. The proof, of course, will be in the flavor. I’ll let you know when that time comes, which looks like possibly next week.
Do you grow English peas in the garden? What’s your favorite variety?
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Blooming Away
The ‘New Dawn’ and ‘White Dawn’ roses I purchased earlier this spring are growing quickly and blooming like mad. I’m really interested to see how well these do in our cold winters. I’d love it if they would grow up and cover the living room wall.
I’m already impressed by their growth, they’ve doubled in size in a little over a month.
Do you have any roses in your garden? What’s your favorite color of rose?
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The Not So Scary Scarecrow
We’ve been wanting to put up a scarecrow in the main garden, but haven’t gotten around to it. Last fall, when we went through my mom’s clothes, I picked out a few things that she always wore to use for my garden scarecrow. I figured she’d LOVE being in my garden helping keep the waxwings out of the strawberries.
This was one of my mom’s favorite shirts, so it’s nice to see it in the garden. My dad and sister thought it was great as well when I sent them photos.
I just threw this one together last minute. There are grand plans forming in my mind of making one with old garden tools, a shovel for the head/face, trowels for the hands, etc. But I need to find a few more old tools and then figure out how to put it all together.
Do you have any great tips for keeping birds out of strawberries & raspberries? What fun things are gracing your garden?
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Bouquet Season
Now that I have a large garden and the plants are starting to mature, I can cut bouquets to have on the table most of the spring/summer/fall. With the deer pressure, I’m thinking of turning the potager into a dedicated cutting garden. No vegetables can be grown there because it would need fenced in. Thus, instead of a greens/soft fruit garden, it will be flowers. Now I’m thinking about what vareties of things I want to add there, I’m thinking mostly perennials in that space with any annual cut flowers to be grown in the vegetable garden. (the peonies in this bouquet are: Duchess du Nemours (white), Sara Bernhardt (light pink), and lotus peony of unknown variety (dark pink in back).
We have a local greenhouse that has fields of peonies, I’m thinking of heading up there this weekend to see what they have that blooms later than the ones I have in the garden. Mine are pretty much gone. While I have other things blooming, I could use a few more peonies that bloom later. The best way to find that is to visit local gardens with peonies. When we lived in Ohio, I loved visiting Kingwood Center to see their peony beds in bloom.
What are you cutting in the garden to enjoy indoors this week?
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The Chicory Patch
Chicories are notoriously difficult to grow, they can be overly bitter if the weather is too warm, or really tough if not blanched. They are picky about the amount of water that hits their leaves and will turn into a slimy mass if it’s too wet. Even though I’ve had my share of failures, that doesn’t stop me from growing a variety of endive, escarole, and radicchio each year.
My various spring started chicories are looking particularly great this year. I’ll be starting to harvest them this week. This year I’m attempting to blanch the endives under terra-cotta pots. This should help keep them drier to avoid any browning and sliming.
Even though we don’t always get fresh chicories from the garden, I always grow them in part because they are beautiful plants. Some years they are inedibly bitter for the humans, but the chickens always find them delicious. I find that the newer hybrid varieties do much better in the garden, they’re often bred to withstand less than perfect conditions with a bit more grace. I’ve had much better success since transitioning to varieties from Johnny’s Seeds.
What are some of your most loved difficult to grow vegetables?
