Mice Keep Eating My Peas!

My greenhouses are bursting at the seams at the moment.

Cucumbers just starting to poke their heads up.

 I've gone a bit plant crazy. A lot of it is for seed saving and to bulk up the amount of seed we have stored so we could grow good quantities should we need to next year.

Saving Legumes For HSL

I love being a member of the HSL as it gives me great access to seeds that I might not otherwise be able to get hold of. And if you've read much of this blog you'll know I'm slightly obsessed by seeds! It's also a great way to support these rare seeds to save them going extinct.

Each year you get to pick out six packets of seed from their list to try. The idea is that you get the seed to grow but with the aim of saving enough seed to send back so it can be looked after and sent out to it's members the following year. Keeping the seeds growing and in production is the best way of keeping them alive and away from becoming extinct.

Generally the numbers they send you are fine. Half a dozen tomato seeds is plenty to grow, taste and save the seed from, the same with a few dozen lettuce seeds. The only problems come when it comes to legumes.

Peas and french beans are easy to save the seeds from and there are lots of old varieties out there so they feature quite highly on HSL lists. The downside comes from how many they send you. I think this year I had 10 french bean seeds and 10 each of the two types of peas.

Now I completely understand why this is, it's rare seed and I should guess that a fair amount of the stuff sent out doesn't get saved and sent back to the HSL. But what it does mean is that for me legumes from them has become a two year project if I want to share the seed with friends and return any.

The first year will be to germinate and grow them on to produce plenty of beans or peas so that I can then grow a good amount of the following year. The following years crop can then be eaten and saved, distributed at our seed swap and sent back to the HSL, a great way of keeping these varieties out there!

Hopefully what we get from them will be worth it. the one dwarf french bean I've got from them has the following description "This black seeded French heirloom variety produces compact, bushy plants that display both drought and cold tolerance. Dark lilac flowers are followed by pencil pods; crisp and tasty when eaten whole and as podded green beans. When dried the beans have a lovely nutty flavour, and are particularly good for use in Mexican and Cuban recipes. Sow to harvest 85 days (approx.) "

This sounds just perfect for a veg for me, especially the bit about showing some cold and drought tolerance, just the type of thing that is needed on a system where you're trying to reduce inputs and get earlier harvests. I wonder how many seeds I'll get from my original 10?

Legumes For Self-Sufficiency

If you were having to grow enough to feed yourself then I think one of the most important crops would be legumes. There are certainly others that are just as important, but these would be pretty high up the list.

Start them young - few jobs make me happier than sowing beans with little people!

Basically you can always find either peas or beans that will grow well in your climate and location. Some are better for drought, some over winter providing cover, some crop early, some are great in pots and containers, some good for storage, some good for fresh use, etc.

They are also a plant that provides a reliable and predictable harvest. Very important when working out the quantities that you'd need to feed you and your family. They also require less in the way of inputs than some other crops.

8 Types of Pea Growing This Year (so far)

I think my love of legumes has got out of hand. I had a count up and I realised I've so far got 8 types of pea growing so far this year. To be honest it should have been ten but the first one didn't come up (mice).

The one set of peas that failed was just a standard podding type called Onward.

Heritage Seed Library Order & Peas Boiling HARD

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a little obsessed with seeds!

And when I joined our local seed swap group last year it seemed logical for me to join the Heritage Seed Library as well. 

They're part of the charity Garden Organic who try to promote organic gardening. They keep a bank of old varieties of seed that they are trying to prevent from going extinct with members breeding them each year. 

Each year as a member of the HSL you can pick six packs of seed from the list. The idea that you grow a few to taste and the rest to save for seed. The pack size is quite small so it might take a few years before you have enough seed saved to be worth sending back in to the library, instead spending your time to build a reserve. 

Last year was utter chaos for growing for me and I'm glad that I didn't have the last few seeds of anything as I doubt there will be any going back. But that's the beauty of it, some (good) years you can give back to the library and others you can just experiment and see how you do. With lots of members the risk is spread.

The list has lots of options to choose from and from this years I chose some that are relatively easy to grow without the risk of cross pollination. I picked:-

Scotland Yellow Tomato
Bijskij Zelty Tomato
Black coco Dwarf French Bean
Fat Baby Achocha
Bronze arrow lettuce (lucky dip extra)
Sutton's Harbinger Pea
Blue Prussian Pea

In the packs of peas there is only about 8 to 10 seeds so they need to be sown in pots, protected from everything!

I'm especially looking forward to growing Blue Prussian Pea as it's in an American book I own called "Heirloom Vegetable Gardening" by William Woys Weaver.

He describes the pea as "as a excellent split pea" But gives further advice on the storage of dried peas, "like any dry pea should never be kept more than a year. An insightful article called "Why Peas Boil Hard" appeared in the gardener's magazine (April 1831, 249) and explained that if peas are stored too long, they will cook "hard," never really softening no matter how long they are boiled. This observation is as true now as it was then, with one further footnote: peas stored for two or three years have also lost significant portion of their nutritional value. This is why it's important to date all stocks of dry peas and beans."

Really interesting I'm sure you'll agree, but I should imagine that the fact we can now store them in airtight containers and in vacuums would seriously increase their shelf life.

One years soup peas collected from a handful of peas - These are called Latvian Soup Peas or the "Grey Pea" 

So I'll try to build a stock of seeds from the 8 I have. Might take a couple of years, or the efforts of a mouse could wipe it out before I begin! Peas are easy to build up numbers though so I'm hopeful.

Anyone experimented with how long you can keep soup and dried peas for before they stay hard even when cooked?

Who else is in the Heritage Seed Library and what have you ordered for next years growing season?

Latvian Soup Peas

So one storage crop is now safely gathered in, my soup peas!

Now I'll level with you, I've not grown these or used them for cooking before but I thought they sounded interesting so I hope they taste good! 

They grew amazingly well (and looked beautiful), but in this country we never have quiet enough dry weather to dry them on the plant outside so instead I picked all the pods and put them on some drying racks I'd made. If I had more inside space I could have picked the whole plants and hung them up.

After about three weeks they'd dried out so all the pods were crisp and easy to break. 

My wife and I sat and podded all the peas whilst the girls were preparing some french beans for the freezer. Not a bad job outside on the patio in the sunshine. 

Although not the most impressive haul, we harvested about 2kg (4lb ish) of dried peas from a 10ft by 30" bed, I could have also sown them a little thicker if I wanted as well. 

Who else grows peas for drying?

How do you use them?

Some Seed Saving Already

I sowed some peas I'd not grown before far too thinly in the spring. I could see it wasn't going to make enough for much more than a meal so I decided to let them all dry and save the seed to grow a much larger amount next time. 

So on Thursday we collected all the dry pods and cut the rest of the bush down to leave somewhere to dry. the best place I could think of was my van sat in full sun! It did a great job, dried them out completely in two days (just need to pod them now). 

I'm in two minds with this seed. I might sow this new batch for a late crop of peas as it would be nice to have some podding peas as I'm sure we'll be fed up of beans in a few months! Risky but the seed has cost nothing! 

I also got the girls on another seed saving project for me - saving grass seed. I gave them a sweet tin and they collected loads for me, this should help patch any bare bits of soil we've got or thicken out thin bits. Certainly saves buying any and they were really proud of how much they collected. 

Who else has already started to collect their seeds for next year?

Pea Supports

Call me lazy but I lately I hate growing climbing plants. It's the extra effort of putting up the supports, tying them in and making sure they stay up. 

Trouble is there's lots of plants I want to grow that are not dwarf varieties. These two peas as are a good example, Bijou mange tout and a Latvian soup pea, both grow big and need good supports (seed bought form The Real Seed Catalogue) so a few sprigs of hazel weren't really going to cut it! 

I had a look a bout the place and found some lengths of concrete reinforcing bar about 8ft (2.4m) long. That was going to take some bending from the weight of a few peas! I had six lengths, perfect for two beds. 

Stood on one of my saw horses I knocked them in with a sledge hammer. I kept going until they were stood six feet out of the ground. 

Then with the aid of two young assistants I tied string every six inches up the bars (they held the string for me), I'm hoping this will prove strong enough for them, I've not grown climbing peas before, normally I stick to dwarf ones, so I've no idea how it will hold up.

What do you use for pea supports? 

How big do your climbing varieties get?

Do you think my supports will be strong enough or should I upgrade the string?

Peas & Beans

The gardening year is just starting for me (although it never really ends), Saturday I had the day to myself and managed to plant a few seeds and a few trees, I also could see some signs of life around the garden.

Softneck garlic just coming up

Hardneck garlic has been up for the whole winter but is just starting to grow again. 

I did plant lots of legumes, broad beans (that I should have planted before now) and two types of peas, one mange tout and one pea for drying as a bit of an experiment in growing staples. 

Seed planted in root trainers, laid out before I push them in.

I also sowed some Jerusalem artichokes as mine don't seem to have made it over winter.

One thing I made sure was that I covered these seeds over and set a few mouse traps, I can't seem to get on top of the mice this year and I know if I left them exposed then by morning there wouldn't be a pea or a bean left! This is the main reason I don't grow anything like this direct in the ground. 

My tomatoes and peppers are going in this week (the girls are so excited about sowing them), most years I put them in far too early so I've been trying to hold off this year! 

Who else has started planting? Or am I way behind everyone else?

Broad beans and Peas Sown

I had an hour in the greenhouse yesterday and managed to plant some broad beans and peas, whether they'll survive the mice is another matter. I've read lots of old books that recommend dipping them in all different (toxic) things to keep them away but I've done none of that. I've raised them all up off the ground so hopefully that should help keep the little blighters away until they start growing. 

Lots of pots full of plants and seeds

 Broad beans were planted in pots and peas in a length of old guttering I got from a job I had last year. The seeds are quite old so I have my doubt as to whether they will grow or not (I found them in an old box I had at my allotment so they're at least four years old).

Peas in gutter

Fig becoming root bound

 I also managed to separate and  pot up some of my cuttings that I took at the end of the summer, like rosemary, gogi and chilean guava. My figs got put into a slightly larger pot to incourage a bit of growth over the next year, they have to have their roots restricted to fruit but it's worth giving them some fresh compost and soil to keep them healthy.

The garden seems to be on the edge of taking off and I love getting ready for it! The next two months are always really busy in the garden but they set the standard on how much you'll grow for the rest of the year. 

Are you getting ready?