William L. Rose wrote:

Bill,

I'm also in northern California. I plant snow peas in the spring from
seed and always get a bumper crop. Over the years I've stopped
planting the vegetables that either don't produce heavily, or that no
one really likes to eat, or that have a lot of pest/health issues. The
snow peas are in the rotation!

Susan B.

Sue,
thanks for the encouragement. I'm in a Region 5 here, west of Santa
Rosa. It seems like I've been sticking plants in the ground for a long
time but I guess the last few years the bug has really bitten me. This
year I tried to branch-out into germinating the seeds. I really don't
have much of a place to sprout seedlings and as you know, everybody got
a late start because of the rain. (April had the greatest number of days
with rain of any previous April, here in Sonoma County.)


I'm in Santa Clara county so it's not quite as extreme heat as you get.

I've had up and down luck with germinating seeds. My best results were
from putting the under my waterbed where it is about 75F, but even there
the results have been mixed. Germination is worse outside. Out of 54
cells, I only got 3 beans to sprout. Oy. Hopefully, after I run into
enough walls, I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong. But then, that's
everybody's first presumption, "it must be me". My plan is to have a
grow light set up next spring.

Of course it's you! But you still want to grow the good stuff! (Sorry
- I used to work at a place where the standard greeting was "It's all
your fault!")

The easiest way I've found to germinate seeds is to use the 6 packs
that you buy plants in. Plant the seeds in SuperSoil in those, then
put them into old roasting pans. Then you put the pans out in only the
"best" spot that you have and bring them in at night if it's too cold.
Lots of seeds don't need to be germinated - they can go straight into
the ground.


Mean while back at the ranch, I struggled with corn, then someone wrote,
they need lots of water! Bim-batta-boom, I have good corn. A little on
the small side but being on the north side of a hill in the forest, I'm
pleased. Now I'm having problems with my peas and I'm told that they
don't like the heat! (Yeah, I am/was growing snow peas. Let's hear it
for the idiot.) The real problem is that my gardening books and the web
sites that I've visited say, "Give lots of water to corn, and don't
plant peas when it is hot. Somehow I just read over those key little
pieces of information. I think I need to back up and reacquaint myself
with all my little friends with cellulose cell walls.


Secretly, everything needs lots of water.

But enough ranting. What kind of production do you get from your peas,
when they aren't being fried by 100F in the shade (and they ain't got
no shade) temperatures. Do yours have a full day's sun? What kind of
soil are they growing in? How many do you plant to fill your needs?

I plant in two raised beds, each 4x8 feet. I'm pretty lazy so there's
usually only one bed going at a time. The beds get at least 8 hours of
sun a day - they're next to a fence and there's a big walnut tree in
the yard. I usually put in a bag or two of compost every year. I try
to rotate between beds, particularly where I put the tomatoes.

When I do snow peas, I'll plant half the bed. I sow seeds directly in
rows across the bed, usually in March/April. My big problem is keeping
my cats from gleefully digging them all up. By mid May they are
producing enough so that I can fill a collander every three days.


I'm trying to grow for three. I'm not trying to unplug from the
"commercial -food distribution" grid but I like to have those little
complements to a good meal and that means fresh. So, I don't need a lot
of any one thing but dependable and adequate production from as small an
area as possible.

Mulching has really improved my garden by reducing the dimension of my
snail and slug problem. On the other hand, I haven't seen any benefit
from crop rotation. I've grown lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes in the
same place for years with no obvious problems. This has been done in
hard clay that is like concrete if you let it dry-out. The soil is
slowly improving but if I stop amending it, I'm sure in a couple of
years, you would never know that there had been a garden there.

Gad, this note is getting out of hand. OK, OK, I'm growing, tomatoes,
lettuce, peppers (of all kinds), corn, cucumbers, beans, peas (on
occasion), squash, sunflowers, rhubarb, beets, Swiss chard, Brussels
sprouts, parsnips, dwarf citrus, dwarf peaches, parsley, cilantro, sage,
oregano, echinacea, licorice, astragalus. prunnela, stinging nettle,
skullcap, yarrow, clivers, mint, and dandelion. The blackberries are
down the road and through the poison oak.


I grow tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, snow peas, spinach, lettuce,
pumpkins. I have a row of boysenberry bushes along the fence that had
a great year because of all that rain. I have a huge lemon tree. I
planted one artichoke root years ago and it comes back every year with
lots of chokes. I grow some herbs but right now it's just a big
rosemary plant. I usually grow garlic and chives but didn't bother
this year.

If you can give me any advice on these plants or related plants, please
post or email me.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to get a copy of the
Sunset garden book because it has advice on your specific microclimate.
USDA info is really too general. And we don't have some of the
forcing factors ("that white stuff") that others who post here have to
contend with.

Susan B.