Red Bird Cabin

In the Spring, my partner-in-crime burned a small pile of brush in the middle of our “dirt circle”.  Since then, we’ve been trying to turn our dirt circle into a drought-tolerant lawn.  As soon as the grass started to come in, we noticed a distinct lush green spot in the middle right where we had the burn.  The wood ash-fed grass is much longer, thicker, and greener than everywhere else.

the super grass circle

In the past, I’d read mixed reviews about using wood ash as a fertilizer (because it tends to raise the PH of the soil making it more alkaline).  And different plants have different PH requirements, etc., etc.  But, if you’re trying to grow a new lawn (or any alkaline-loving vegetation), and you use a wood stove or fireplace, save your ash.  Grasses, and many other plants & veggies prefer a slightly alkaline environment (6.5-7), and a handful of free ash goes a long way.  For more detailed info on using wood ash, check out this Purdue U. article.

P.S. I wouldn’t recommend burning brush in your yard.  It’s not enviro-friendly, could start a fire, and I wasn’t happy about it when I found the burn pile in progress.  But, if you are using a wood stove or fireplace already, why not recycle your ash in the garden?

Can we have a moment for the flowers that spawn our garden vegetables?  I mean, we give so much lip service and attention to the final product… our delicious heirloom tomatoes, beans, squash.  While the modest little veggie flowers go somewhat unappreciated.  And they’re so self-sacrificing… living this short life just to be pollinated, shrivel, and die giving birth to the vegetable or fruit that’s coming through.  So today I decided to snap some shots of my blooming garden and pay tribute to the flowers of vegetables.

Starting top left: heirloom tomato, french bean, sugar snap pea, blackberry and thai pepper blossoms

The old English fairy tale about “magic beans” is no joke.  I planted Sugar Snap Peas (in the bean family) for the first time this Spring… and they’ve already climbed over 7 feet tall.  Being an “early crop” (preferring cooler weather) the stalks started flowering and producing peas in mid-May.  They’re a beautiful addition to the garden because of windy, vining way they climb an the flurry of delicate white flowers. ( If you don’t have much room, you can also grow them in a large container pot.)

All of the vines are sugar snap peas (w/ the exception of the round green leaves in the middle). Those are climbing nasturtiums. They'll bloom in the summer providing color and edible flowers!

How to Grow Sugar Snap Peas
I started my snap peas from seed indoors in late February.  When they were about 4 inches high, I transplanted the seedlings into the garden underneath a large structure I’d built out of sticks and twine (above).  Whether you grow snap peas in the garden or in a pot, you need to be sure that they have some sort of trellis or support structure to climb on.  For mine, I made a “coppice craft” trellis. I took two sturdy sticks and dug each one into the earth opposite one another. Where the sticks crossed each other, I tied them together with twine.  I repeated this process about every 2 feet.  Once I had a row of these 2-dimensional tepees, I tied them all together with rows of twine… creating a new horizontal row about every 10 inches or so.  (Using netting attached to stakes is also a popular way to go.)  It’s totally ok to make it up as you go as long as the structure feels fairly sturdy and offers multiple levels for the pea tendrils to grip on to.  The peas will find their way!

If you’re a beginning gardner, I’d suggest also reading this article on how to grow snap peas.

Snap Pea Flower

TIP: If you have a lot of birds in your area, especially robins, you might want to surround your peas with netting until they’re about 1 foot tall. Some birds have a bad habit of decapitating seedlings.