Peas and carrots are a classic couple in the kitchen, but what about the garden?
Normally, peas are sown in early spring. The traditional date is St. Patrick’s Day. While that may work in gentler climes, at 7,000 ft. elevation I would need a drill to create holes in my frozen ground. I usually plant a month later, on Tax Day. At least it gives me something to enjoy on that date.
This year, weekly snowstorms have delayed all my gardening chores. I finally got my peas into the ground on May 6. I don’t have great expectations for the harvest. Maybe we’ll have a cool start to the summer, and my husband will get to enjoy his Sugar Snaps. Maybe not. That’s the gamble of gardening in Colorado.
Carrots, on the other hand, are usually planted a week or two before the average last frost date. The cool temperatures and snow-damp soil help keep the seeds from drying out during the three weeks it takes them to germinate.
This year, I sowed carrots on the same day as the peas. At least they’re right on schedule. I took the time to arrange the seeds in blocks of 16 per square foot, so I won’t have much thinning to do later. In my 4 x 4 foot carrot bed, that gives me 256 carrots—plenty for our needs.
They’re jumping up all over the place— miniature flowers with elfin faces, surrounded by petals of yellow and purple. No wonder we call them Johnny Jump-ups! The petite plants, sporting elongated heart-shaped leaves, must have started growing as soon as the ground thawed, to be in bloom this early.
These short-lived members of the violet family are not particular about soil, exposure, or water. However, for maximum bloom, grow them in full sun, and don’t let them get too thirsty. Skip the plant food, as too much fertility will encourage leaves at the expense of flowers. For a mid-summer repeat performance, trim back leggy plants. Prolific self-seeders, new plants quickly replace those that succumb to old age, and they will form a solid mat in a year or two.
Vegetable seeds will germinate with or without soil. All they really need is an infusion of water to swell the seed coat, and sufficient warmth to signify spring. In fact, seeds for our most commonly grown food crops are among the easiest to start. They will begin their growth on a paper towel, a bed of agar, or even while still inside the fruit where they were formed! The home gardener can put this fertility to good use.
Mountain Plover 