The main thing I know about strawberries is that they send out runners and spread beyond their original plantings so I decided to plant strawberries in large pots.

The morning after I wrote this post I went out to check on my newly planted strawberry plants.  Some sort of animal had taken to digging in the and unearthing most of the new plants.  My guess would be a raccoon or squirrel (although it was a lot of damage for a squirrel).  So it looks like I may be protecting these pots some how.

Peas are an odd cold weather crop they grow best when the weather is cold but they  still need a warm span so they can germinate.  Generally if you plant peas to early they can take up to a month to germinate and you will end up getting your crop later but if you wait a little longer it takes 10 days to germinate and you have your can be enjoying peas a little earlier in June.  So if you are really lucky and you can schedule your pea planting to be done on the first day of a warm week in March.

The types of peas I have planted this year are:

• Amish Snap
• Dwarf Grey Sugar
• Golden Sweet Edible Pods
• Thomas LAxton
• Green Arrow
• Miragreen
• Sugar Ann

I ended up planting another round of peas after these came up. I do love spring. Enjoy your planting.

At a later date I will go over the custom design and construction of this cold frame maybe after I build another one and include some of the improvements I have thought of after a seasons worth of wear.

One thing I thought was useful was knowing the true difference in temperature between the cold frame and the outside air.  In the photo below you can see a little white box on the far side that is a remote sensor to the wireless thermostat I have in the house there is another one right on the other side of the wood from that one.  Generally what I noticed over the winter was that at night the air in the cold frame stayed 3-4 degrees warmer than the outside air, but during the day if there was any sun at all during the day the temperature in the cold frame would heat up to almost 70 deg even when it was 30-35 deg outside.  This leads me to believe that durring the day the ground in this raised bed got much warmer and was able to retain that warmth through the night allowing a few deep freezes to pass by without affecting the plants inside.

Cold frame with a strong crop of lettuce and carrots in February.

I have 10 hybrid tea roses growing on the sunny side of my house.  Last year they were hit by some aphids and roses eaten by aphids are heart breaking.  This year I decided to take some action defending them.  The hired guns I am putting on guard are the left over onions and garlic from this seasons vegetable garden.

I had to build a few new 2ft x 8ft x 6in raised beds this year to move my rasberries and blackberries out of the poorly drained soil they were living in.  I find narrower beds are genrally easier to maintain since there is less reaching over plants on the edge to get o the middle.

Generally it is recommended that you build raised beds using a rot resident wood like cedar but cedar is so expensive it was the choice of building a cedar bed for $200 or using pine or fir which would cost $10 and would have to be replaced in 5 years.  Since I have to make 4 of these this year is was a no brainer (although I may regret it in 5 years).  I also didn’t get treated wood.

To make a 2ft x 8ft x 6in raised bed you are going to need the following materials:

• 2 – 8′ long 2″x6″ boards
• 2 – 2′ long 2″x6″ boards
• 4 – 6″ long 4″x4″ posts
• 16 – 3″ wood screws

I find it best to cut all the pieces first and then build the bed directly on the spot you want it to go.  You are also going to need a drill.

First connect the 4″x4″ posts to the 8′ long boards using 2 screws at each connection.

Then connect the 2′ long boards to the joints you just connected.

Now you should have the full rectangle shaped bed.

This should be moved and positioned in to the place you would like to put the bed.

Then you can start to dig and get it level.  I tend to do this using a hand tool and leave as much of the underlying dirt and untouched as possible.  It will all depend on the make up of your soil.

Initially you will just want to remove the sod

Then you can dig some trenches for the walls of the bed if you are on a slight slope.

Then you fill it with dirt and plants.

This is really a fairly simple project and shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. I remember the first time I built a raised bed all I could think was is this the right way to do this, so hopefully this helps someone.

This year I decided to increase the peas I am planting by about 8 times.  I wanted to see if I could get more peas to the kitchen this year rather than just being eaten as being picked.

I built a narrow raised bed at the foot of a metal mesh fence that is about 40 feet long.  The bed is 6 inches high and 12-14 inches wide, allowing enough space for 2 rows and 40 feet of peas.  There is a soaker hose running down the middle so I just planted a row on each side of that.  My plan is to hang a nylon trellis down the middle of the row that both peas can grow up or at leas the outer one as I am sure the one closes to the fence may just grow up that.

I sketched out the space that I would be planting in a notebook and kept track of what was going in each row so I could tell later on which of the 5 different types I liked the best.  The 5 different types I am planting are Amish Snap, Dwarf Grey Sugar, Golden Sweet Edible Pods, Thomas Laxton & Green Arrow. After some research I tried to keep the taller varieties on the north just to enable the most sun sharing.

Planting long rows of peas is actually quite fun and a very good job for any little ones helping in the garden.  I generally make the long line of holes where I want the peas to go and my daughter drops in the peas.  There is bound to be spills and miss placements but any spots that are missed can be replanted in the next few weeks.  I find it is best to apply what I learned watching Bob Ross to gardening there are no mistakes just happy accidents.

It is also just as easy to make a row an just line up peas in in then cover it over.  I found that to be quicker once my daughter got tired of helping and had moved on to other things.

One thing to keep in mind is that peas grow best when the weather is cold but germinate best when the soil is warm so it is best to take you chances and plant some when you know there is going to be a warm spell in late winter.  Maybe you will get lucky and get them up and growing right before it cools off again.

It is also helpful to soak the peas over night in water to get them ready for planting.  This helps them to geminate quicker. I generally save a fair amount of tuna/cat food tins as they are very useful around the garden.  One use is a pea soaker, soak each variety in their own tin over night, drain them and take them out to plant.

One thing to keep in mind also is that peas are very simple to save.  Rather than having to buy new pea seeds every year just let a few of the pods on the peas dry out and save them to be used for next seasons crop.  I will have more on that laster when it is that time of year.

One thing that is important is that the thing that peas need more than anything to be successful is water so after the planting be sure to give them a good soak it will help to get them germinating on that warm winter day you picked to plant them.  

Good luck. Hope you enjoy planting the best cold weather crop, I know I do.

Broccoli is such a simple easy green to add to any meal I will consider it a huge win if I am able to produce 5 food producing plants.

Over the weekend I started 55 tomato seedlings on my inside growing shelves.  It took about and hour to open each seed packet and pull on 3 to 4 of each variety, soak the grow plug and place them in the tray.  I planted a total of 17 different varieties all from J. L. Hudson, Seedsman a great mail order seed bank.  I have a homemade indoor grow shelf that has some fluorescent shop lights on a timer. My tomato varieties have increased progressively since I started my home garden 3 summers ago.  I started out with just 2 varieties early girl and some sort of beefsteak.  I eventually realized how amazing some of the non-standard grocery store varieties are. This year is by far my most diverse year.  I am sure I will as you always to have some non starters and some flat-out failures but I am looking forward to this years crop.  As long as I can come up with a solution to those damn squirrels (more on that in a future post).  Below are the 17 tomato varieties I started this year.  I will am hoping to have some left over seedlings, I only have room for at max 30 tomato plants, some have already been promised to friends but I am hoping to give the rest away to neighbors.

1. Black Cherry
2. Black Truffle
3. Brandywine
4. Brown Berry
5. Caspian Pink
6. Dad’s Sunset
7. Golden Gooseberry
8. Isis Candy
9. Nebraska Wedding
10. Pineapple
11. Purple Calabash
12. Red Strawberry
13. Sub-Arctic Plenty
14. Tappy’s Heritage
15. Tri-Color Pear
16. Variegated
17. Watermelon Beefsteak