An A"pea"ling experiment...yuk, yuk yuk!

I finished picking all my peas for this year...maybe.  I got a pretty huge crop of peas this year and I ended up shelling and freezing a pretty good chunk of them.  I pulled the old plants because they haven't been producing new blossoms since it has gotten so warm.  I decided to experiment with a "fall crop" of peas because I have quite a few heirloom seeds left over from last year.  I just tilled & planted some new seeds today & we'll see if we get that fall harvest in.

If it doesn't work out I'm not too worried...I've got plenty of pods that were too big to eat that can be used as seed for next year.

I'll follow up on my pea experiment on a later post.  I'm also researching squash pollination & cross pollination & hope to be able to put a blog together on that soon. 

I'm sure this blog seems a little boring, but I really do love my garden & my feeble attempt to get back to the basics of living. We seem to rely all too much on products that everybody deems safe & convenient (and yes, I still partake of some of those products), but where possible I'd like to take care of things myself.  That is part of the reason I plant a garden of large proportion & preserve the food I grow for later use.

And the first strawberries of the season go to...

Miles!!!

My boy loves his strawberries.  I finally got the patch cleared of weeds this past week so the sun could shine down on our little berries.  We should be getting quite a bunch this year as most of our plants are everbearing.

Another reason to celebrate is the amount of greens we've been getting.  I planted the "European Mesclun Salad" pack I purchased from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  We planted this in a small corner of our back yard where the fences connect.  It stays cool in that spot so we're just going to keep it there from now on.  This mix has lettuce, radicchio, arugula, endive, orach, mizuna, kale, mustard, corn salad and more (we've been getting some really awesome spinach out of it).  The swiss chard in the picture is from a different plant, but adds a nice flavor when mixed with the rest. 
If you're ever in my neck of the woods, stop by for a tasty salad or smoothie!

Here We Grow!

This year I planted my peas a little farther apart so I could fit the tiller in between the rows.  They are loving this cooler weather and growing quite well.  This is the second year I've used heirloom seeds from the previous year's harvest.  In my opinion, peas are one of the easiest plants to get seeds from and they regrow really well.

I started these cucumbers in the greenhouse this year.  They are heirloom seeds as well.  I have 3 Marketmore 76 starts and 12 Early Russian starts.  The Marketmore will be your average salad-type cucumbers while the Early Russians are better suited for pickling.  (I really need some pickles...we opened our very last jar of the homemade ones last week)

This sad looking patch of swiss chard is just kind of growing up from last year.  We've changed our garden plan and these are just kind of in the middle of nowhere.  I'm keeping them in because according to the law of seed collecting chard produces seed on the second year.  Now I just have to keep the chickens from pecking at it.

This is just a portion of what I've got so far.  My greenhouse is working really well and I've got some heirloom tomato starts and various squash in there.  I'm worried that I started the tomatoes too late, but with the greenhouse I should be able to keep them going long enough to be able to collect a small amount of seeds.  I'll post more as things grow and get planted in the ground.