Pea Blossoms!

Pea blossoms are one of my favorite flowers. I'm not talking the inedible sweet pea vines. I'm talking about the delicate white blossoms that pea vines set before they set their pea pods. I think I like pea flowers so much because they are one of the first blooms in the vegetable garden, and give promise to a lot more to come! I wait so impatiently every Spring for these blossoms. Finally they are blooming in my own garden! Seeing the pea blossoms is the first small garden victory in what promises to be quite a productive season.

The spinach I planted with my strawberries is really taking off. I'm planning on harvesting some tonight to use in dinner. I tried some of the spinach already- it's delicious. So far this year I have harvested some lovage, lemon balm, rosemary (I overwinter it inside), chives, sage, spinach, rhubarb, and radshes. All grown by me, and harvested by hand. No pesticides, no transport costs, all organic, all delicious.

Peppers!

I'm excited to announce we are planting the pepper seeds today! Of coarse we'll be starting the seeds indoors. Where I live, we don't have a long enough growing season to plant the seeds outdoors when the weather warms up. It is possible to grow pepper plants to maturity here, just not probable. So we start them indoors 8 to 12 weeks before we set the plants out.

I like to make my own seed starting mix as opposed to buying one. Pretty much all seed starting mixes are just peat moss and perlite, so that's what I use. The trick, though, is that I like to change the proportions depending on the type of seed I am germinating. For a pepper plant, for example, I'll put a bit more perlite in the mix so the soil drains faster.

Well, off to start seeds!