Antelope Valley Press

Helpful tips for taking care of your winter garden

Desert Gardener Neal Weisenberger

Ilike my winter garden as much, or more, than the summer garden. Due to the temperature, winter gardens need less water and have few insect pests and weeds. However, I do need to protect the garden from the rabbits, which are looking for anything green to eat during the winter.

I especially like snow or sugar peas. Snow peas have edible pods. Garden or green peas need to have the peas removed from the pods.

Most snow and garden peas need cool temperatures to grow; once it gets hot, the plant shrivels and dies. Peas like full sun and cool temperatures, so find a location in your garden with full sun.

When starting peas (and beans) from seed, it is important to soak the seeds from a few hours to overnight. This will speed up the germination process and improve germinate rates. If you have never grown peas or beans in your garden before, or it has been several years, it is best to add inoculant to the seeds or soil next to seeds.

Peas and beans are in the legume family. There are many plants in this family for root nodules. These root nodules are homes or colonies of bacteria that can absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form the plant can use.

If you have little to none of the desirable bacteria in the soil, you will need to add nitrogen fertilizer to your soil. However, the plant still may not have the vigor they should.

You can order the bacteria to add to your soil; it’s called an inoculant. Most peas and beans need the same bacteria, but soybeans need a different inoculant.

It is still best to lightly fertilize once, after the seeds germinate, because it does take time for the nodules to form and the natural process to start.

Pea seeds germinate very slowly in cold soil, so if you are planting now, you can place clear plastic on the soil for a week to help warm it. Remove the plastic and plant the seeds.

I have raised beds to which I can add a plastic tunnel; it looks like a small greenhouse. I remove the tunnel after the peas have germinated.

By the way, I have a tunnel over my bell peppers and they are still surviving. Peas have shallow roots and can easily dry out, so adding mulch around the plants when they grow to a couple inches tall is good. You can use compost or even straw.

Peas do best with a trellis on which to grow. You do not need to tie the plants to the trellis; they will attach themselves to a wire trellis.

A simple trellis made of garden stakes and two- or three-foot chicken wire works just fine. You can also use tomato cages if you have some lying around from summer.

Snow peas are ready for harvest when you can first see the seeds developing in the pods.

VALLEY LIFE

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2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://avpress.pressreader.com/article/281736978478816

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