Another week, another Nor'Easter

As Charles Dudley said, "Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." We have had the most unusual March weather I can remember. We have had a snowy Nor'easter once a week since March started. I still have patches of snow in my garden from the last one!

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and of course, we have a snowy Nor'easter heading our way. (With talks of another this weekend?)  If there was something I could do about it, I would because Saint Patrick's Day has traditionally been pea planting day for me and my peas are still in their seed packages! 

There is really no need to rush pea planting. They don't germinate well if the soil is too cold and they rot if it's too wet. Our soil temperature is in the mid 40's, which would be perfect for the peas if it weren't for the forecast! 

I don't watch broadcast television, so the first I heard of this snow was Saturday. I was planning on planting the peas today. It would have been perfect. It's warm (well, high 40's - feels warm to me!) and the soil is workable in the areas I'm planning on planting peas. The 7 day forecast had been talking of a warm up. Then we got the forecast from Big Sky on our Alexa Saturday morning and heard about the snow. Boy, were we surprised! 

Still,  it was beautiful out today, so I did prepare the beds for the peas (and potatoes and arugula, and spinach and radishes.) I pulled any weeds and topped all the beds with compost. It felt so good to be outside gardening.

This bed has my fall planted garlic in it.  Garlic and peas grow well together. I was going to prepare the bed next to this one for more peas, but when I took off the mulch, it was riddled with vole holes!😡 I was going to wait until the fall to put hardware cloth in that bed, but I am thinking I may try to do it this spring, if I can.

This past week I planted my pepper seeds inside.

I planted 20 peppers, because they freeze well, they are easy to grow, and because they are very healthy for you. They are the highest vegetable source of vitamin C, in addition to other vitamins and antioxidants. These benefits are especially high when you allow your peppers to ripen to red, orange, yellow or purple, depending on the variety you plant. I also like green bell peppers, so I planted 4 varieties of bell peppers so I could let three varieties ripen and eat the green bell peppers from the fourth one.  I also planted another sweet pepper that I grew last year with good results, that is more horn shaped, Corno di Toro, which translates "Bull's Horn". I had already planted cayenne peppers the week before, and I also planted jalapeno and Anaheim peppers for some heat. Yum!

Peppers like hot temperatures, while growing and while germinating. I put the seedling tray on the shelf in my kitchen above the kick-space heater, where they will be nice and cozy. When the seedlings appear, I will move them to lights in my grow room.

When I put the peppers in the potager, probably after Mother's Day, I will avoid areas where the garden is cold (like the bits where the snow still hasn't melted) and instead place them where it is warmer. However, peppers don't do well with too much sun, so warm with afternoon shade would be ideal.

This week as the snow falls, I'll be in the grow room planting seeds for tomatoes and flowers.  Hopefully next week I'll be able to let you know how the pea planting went! If it's not snowing again!

I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.
— David Hobson