Across North America, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about healthy diets, food safety, and green living. These issues have sparked major changes in consumer behavior, with many of these developments leading to improvements in local food supplies.

Many of these changes start at the local level as consumers are buying local foods and growing their own fruits and vegetables. These movements, while new to some generations, are actually a return to a simpler lifestyle that many of our ancestors embraced.

When consumers begin the shift from buying mostly processed foods to locally sourced, unprocessed products, they usually face a variety of challenges. This same situation happens when homeowners decide to try their hand at gardening. Both practices generate considerable amounts of byproducts, which to the novice might appear to be waste. In reality, there is very little that is not useful in some way.

Vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, shellfish shells, fish parts, and other byproducts all contain valuable nutrients which can enrich garden soils. The key to utilizing these valuable byproducts is a composting operation. Composting is a natural way to process organic waste such as plant material, food scraps and other items. A variety of composting layouts are available, although a basic compost pile requires practically nothing to create.

To begin composting, a gardener should set aside a small section in one corner of the garden. Alternatively, a compost pile can be started elsewhere if aesthetics is an issue. Uprooted weeds, dead vegetation, grass clippings and other materials make a good foundation to compost piles.

Once a layer of compostable materials are laid down, they can be covered with a thin layer of soil. Adding small amounts of fertilizer and lime is also beneficial, if desired. Once the pile has been started, nature starts the process on its own. Microbes, fungi, insects, worms, and other organisms immediately go to work, breaking down materials in the pile.

As the compost pile begins working, more byproducts can be added and the layers can be turned with a gardening fork. Once a working compost pile gets established, it can digest large amounts of organic materials, especially in warm weather. When up and running, gardeners can begin adding non-plant table scraps. Although most experts advise against placing meats or other foods in compost piles, small amounts of byproducts are not only acceptable but can be valuable additions to the mix.

Among the most mineral-rich are fish bones, scales, shellfish shells and similar waste. Experienced cooks often process large amounts of these materials and will find composting to be an excellent way to dispose of these items. For example, cooks often buy locally sourced shellfish such as crabs, shrimp, prawns or lobsters to serve fresh and freeze for later use. Typically, shellfish are cooked whole, and the meat separated from the shells. Similarly, cooks often simmer fish carcasses to create delicious stocks.

The remaining shells from shellfish or bones from fish stock contain calcium and other minerals that greatly enrich compost. Cooked shell material, fish bones or other items can be spread over the compost pile in a thin layer, or buried deep in the middle where they can be broken down.

At the end of the growing season, gardeners often start a new pile, and let the previous compost heap lie dormant. When spring arrives, the previous season’s compost will be a rich coffee color and full of nutrients. Adding this material into the soil can be done during spring plantings or anytime a boost is required.

The author is an avid gardener and seafood enthusiast. To find a local seafood market or to buy gourmet seafood from around the world, visit the seafood business directory.

The easiest and most worthwhile vegetable for most people to grow their own transplants of, is the tomato. Tomatoes sprout easily, grow fairly fast, are very forgiving of transplanting, recover from mistakes fairly easily, and don’t require heat mats in order to get them started. Growing your own seedlings also gives you the opportunity to choose varieties which are available as seed but hardly ever as transplants at stores.

Soil for starting seeds

Don’t use garden soil! It contains weed seeds (unless you sterilize it) and it compacts too easily. The requirements for a good seed starting potting soil are:

• Fine texture but remains aerated
• Holds water well
• Drains easily

Home-made compost can be used as part of a seed-starting mix if you sterilize it first (pour boiling water over, or bake in the oven – very stinky!) and sift out all the lumps. Mix it with fine peat and perlite or vermiculite. It’s better used for making mix for potting on plants once they have germinated and grown into seedlings – see the post on Making Your Own Potting Soil for more details on that.

I use commercial peat-based seed starting mix with no added fertilizer or wetting agent. You can also get coir-based seed starting soil which I haven’t tried yet, but probably will this year.

Fertilizer

Seeds don’t need any fertilizer for germination, as the seed has its own built-in food supply. After the seedling has 2-3 true leaves, you should fertilize very sparingly using liquid fertilizer in the water. That can be compost tea, fish fertilizer, liquid seaweed, etc.

Containers

Lots of choices here. Don’t forget that even if you choose plastic containers from the garden store, you can wash and re-use them many times over before they give up the ghost. Don’t be throwing them away after a single use!

Plastic flats with inserts and lids. This is an example of a Jiffy brand kit which comes with a plastic tray (flat), inserts which allow you to start 72 small plants in the tray, and a clear plastic dome lid.

Plastic mini greenhouse for seed starting (Amazon)

Recycled containers

Plastic eg yogurt pots, styrofoam cups etc standing on styrofoam trays. Must poke drainage hole in the bottom of each pot!

Cardboard tubes for seeds with long taproots or root veggies (may go moldy – doesn’t hurt the plants)

Newspaper pots
Use a “Potmaker” or roll newspaper round a small can or glass of the desired size, fold flaps under at the bottom and tape. Instructions for newspaper pots are here.

Commercial systems

There is a huge variety of elaborate seed starting “systems” available from different manufacturers. While they do work, and some people swear by them, you really don’t need them to produce good transplants – and they are expensive, and often made from styrofoam which is self-destructing and hard to recycle. So, I recommend that you try simpler equipment first.

Plantable, biodegradable containers are recommended for plants which don’t like their roots disturbed. You can use newspaper pots or cardboard tubes instead. Peat pots must be very wet when planted out, and remember to tear off the rim so it doesn’t stick up above the soil and wick water away from the plant. Jiffy pellets made from peat are easy and convenient but they leave netting behind in the soil (it’s supposed to be biodegradable, but in my experience it takes years to disappear). Coir pots are now available too, very similar to peat, and you can even find pots made from cow manure!

Tools for sowing

Plain old fingers work for many seeds. Some small ones may be easier to deal with using a tool, especially if you have big fingers or trouble with arthritis. Here are a couple of examples: I have used both of these and personally I prefer fingers, but you may find they work better for you.

Red scoop type seed sower (Amazon)

Green dial seed sower (Amazon)

Where to do your seed-starting

For the actual planting, you need a hard, cleanable surface that won’t be damaged by water. A hard floor underneath that’s also water resistant is a really good idea too. A tarp will protect a wood tabletop if you don’t have anywhere else, or you can even use the kitchen counter. It’s very convenient to have water easily available. My favorite place for planting is the basement kitchen in my house, where I can make a mess without anyone worrying!

Once your seeds are planted, you may need space for a light stand. Because the lights will come on early and stay on late for best plant growth, you may want to locate this somewhere where it won’t disturb anyone. I’ve had best success with mine in the basement or spare room, but it’s still usable even in my office, living room, bedroom, or on the stair landing! It all depends where you have a bit of floor space, electrical outlet, and either a water resistant floor or a piece of plastic under the stand.

Indoor Light Equipment

If you don’t have reliable sun on a windowsill in winter, a fluorescent light setup is the best way to grow your tender transplants indoors. You can do anything from suspending a work-light over an existing shelf or worktop, through building a simple light stand yourself, to shelling out big bucks for a commercial unit.

Lights

Bright Stik

• One will barely light one narrow “windowsill” flat
• Can’t replace tube, not economical

Shop Lights

• Cheap
• One will light up 2 regular size flats
• Hang them anywhere

Don’t use incandescent grow lights

• Not enough light
• Too much heat

High Intensity halide lights

• Very expensive, only for serious growers

Timers

It’s important to turn the lights on and off morning and evening to give the plants 16-18 hours of light a day, e.g. 6am – 11pm. A timer is much more reliable than memory! Since most shop-lights now have three-prong (grounded) plugs, you’ll need a timer that takes them – usually labeled as “heavy-duty” or “exterior”.

Heating pads or cables (optional)

• Not necessary for most seeds
• Helps with getting heat-loving seeds eg basil, peppers to germinate
• Sit your tray on top of the water heater or fridge instead!

Electric Fan (optional)

• For Intermittent breeze
• Helps seedlings to grow strong and stocky
• Makes adjustment to outdoors easier
• Can have fan on a timer too
• A cheap small desk or table fan works fine – whatever you already have.

Shelves or plant supports

You can use existing resources such as  an old table with books or cement blocks to hold up the lights, and the plants on the table underneath it, or a shelf unit with the lights hung from the upper shelves and plants on the lower ones. Whatever you use, work out a way to control the distance between the lights and the plants so you can increase it as the plants grow. That may mean raising or lowering the lights on chains, or adjusting the height of the plants by adding or removing layers underneath the trays. Whatever works.

The next step up is to build a light stand. My design for a home-made stand is available here (free).

If you have plenty of cash to spare you might want to buy one of the spiffy light stands available from places like Lee Valley Tools and Amazon.

Preparation for Seeding

• Clean recycled containers
• Dampen soil
• Remove lumps
• Fill containers
• Tamp soil
• Make a dent for seed(s)
• Make labels (no kidding: make them BEFORE you plant the seeds so they are ready to use instantly)

Sowing seeds

How many to sow? To get one plant in each cell or container:

• Expensive hybrids – one per container
• Brand new seed – one per container
• Cheap seed or old seed – 2-5 per container

Covering

• The smaller the seed, the shallower you sow
• Cover the seed with about 3 times it’s width and press gently to firm the soil and make good contact between damp soil and the seed. Don’t squash the soil down hard!
• Tiny seeds may just be left on the surface
• A few seeds need light to germinate and must not be covered (check the seed packet)

Watering

Water from the bottom by setting the planted container in a dray or dish of water until the surface is thoroughly wet, then allow to drain. Then cover the planted containers  with a transparent cover that keeps in most water – a plastic bag will do, or the transparent plastic dome you get with a kit – and place them under the lights.

Check the containers every day to watch for signs of sprouting. Once seeds start to sprout, gradually open and remove the cover to give them better ventilation.

As your baby plants grow, they are easy to care for.

Water from the bottom when the surface of the soil dries out. You are better off slightly underwatering than overwatering, but don’t let them wilt.

Once the plants have 2-3 true leaves (not the first seed leaves), start feeding them with extra diluted liquid fertilizer.

Move the lights up or the plants down as they grow, so the leaves stay about 2″ from the lights. If plants on the outer edges lean towards the light, turn and swap the containers around from time to time to even things up.

Potting On

We often need to move plants into a larger container once they grow too big for the small cell or pot we started them in. 3” or 4” round or square pots will do. Some plants (tomato, broccoli, lettuce) don’t mind having their stems buried to reduce legginess.

Seedlings to be repotted should be watered and allowed to drain several hours beforehand, so they are thoroughly damp but not sodden.

• Prepare larger pot with damp soil and a hole the same size as the seedling’s root ball
• Squeeze bottom of cell you want to get plant out of
• Cage fingers over remaining cells
• Turn cell pack upside down and push desired seedling out of cell into fingers
• Plop into prepared hole
• Firm soil around seedling
• Water well from the bottom

• It’s far cheaper than buying seedlings if you want lots of plants
• You can get many varieties which are not available at nurseries
• You’ll have seedlings ready at a time which suits you
• You can grow organic seedlings without paying a premium price for them

Seed-starting methods

There is a variety of ways to start seeds and grow seedlings, some requiring more equipment than others.

Indoors

On a Windowsill

We don’t get enough sunlight here in the PNW to grow the best transplants this way, even with reflectors, but if it’s your only option you can do it. They will just be leggier than is ideal. If you live in a sunnier climate, you may find it works great for you.

Grow Lights

• Can produce excellent seedlings
• Needs a certain amount of equipment, but not too expensive – you should be able to get started for $50 or less.
• Needs about 2ft x 6ft floor space minimum

Greenhouse

An unheated greenhouse can be used for starting hardy plants, and even tender ones if you enclose (with a layer of clear plastic) and heat a small area using heat mats or tapes. Temperature control can be awkward as it can get too hot in the sun.

Outdoors

Direct sowing

This is best for root vegetables, peas and beans, flowers which resent transplanting, plants which re-seed themselves, or large seeded plants. See “Direct Seeding Outside” for more instructions. Downsides are that weeds can take over before the plants you want get big enough to compete with them, and in many areas tropicals (eg tomatoes and peppers) won’t get a long enough season to ripen many, if any, fruits. Your success is also dependent on conditions you have no control over: your seeds or baby plants can get frozen, sunburnt, blown away, drowned, even eaten by critters.

Winter sowing

• Sow indoors in containers in the winter, then leave outside
• Will germinate when conditions are suitable from early spring onwards
• Containers protect plants from animals, wild weather, weeds etc
• Fun to play in the dirt in the winter!
• http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/

Cold frame, cloches, plastic tunnels

• More control than direct seeding
• Protection from wild weather, animals etc
• Extends season in spring and fall
• Allows fresh veggies all through the winter

Choosing seeds

Why seeds for your local climate are important

Most national US and Canadian seed companies target the seed varieties they carry to the majority of their market – largely East of the Rockies. Those varieties are adapted to hotter summers and shorter springs than we have here in the PNW. Many don’t ripen or even set fruit reliably here. Similar problems arise for people gardening in the Southern US.

If you can find local or regional seed companies, their varieties should be well adapted to your region and the information on sowing dates, dates to maturity, etc on the packets and in the catalog will bear some resemblance to what you’re likely to get in reality.

This is more important for vegetables than flowers, and especially warm season veg like tomatoes, peppers, corn, melons, etc. Onions are also region-dependent though not so much for temperatiure or length of season issues, but because they are sensitive to day length, and different varieties are needed for northern and southern latitudes.

My recipe is adapted from one in Steve Solomon’s excellent book Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. My measures are a bucket which holds about 3 gallons, and an old measuring cup retired from the kitchen. Measurements don’t need to be exact, though. The compost and peat or coir should be damp, not soaking wet and not dry. See below for a video version!

3 buckets homemade compost, screened
2 buckets coir or peat, without too many big lumps
2 buckets horticultural vermiculite or perlite
3 cups complete dry organic fertilizer
1 cup lime if you have acid soil

Layer it all together in a big wheelbarrow or other container and mix with a shovel or fork. It’s not rocket science: just keep mixing until everything is well distributed and there are no clumps.

Store in a ventilated container: I use an old plastic garbage can with ventilation holes drilled in it. Be aware that without ventilation any non-sterile soil mix can go “sour” and grow micro-organisms which your seedlings will not be happy with. Been there, done that.

This works very well for hanging baskets and container gardens as well as growing small plants. If the plants are in the mix all season though, they will run out of nutrients: feed with liquid organic feed like compost or manure tea, fish fertilizer, or similar.

Here’s a video showing exactly how I do it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrPzsG4lc2c

There are two main parts to this – the state of the transplant, and the state of the place you’re going to plant them into.

The ideal is to plant your young seedlings as soon as they are ready to grow out of their pot – before their growth is checked, but not so soon that they haven’t filled the pot with roots and the rootball falls apart. I have to admit that most of the time I don’t hit the ideal moment – my transplants almost always have to wait until they are begging to be out of their pots, poor things – but even so, most vegetables are fairly forgiving and you’ll still get decent results. Cauliflower and melons are two kinds that deeply resent being transplanted at the wrong time, though, so be warned!

You can check root growth by very gently and carefully turning the plant upside down and turning it out of its pot into your hand. You’re looking for healthy white roots visible on the outside of the rootball, and a rootball that holds together well.

Apart from the stage of growth, transplants grown indoors or in a greenhouse will need “hardening off” before being planted outside. That means, gradually letting them get used to the new conditions before you plant them. Carrying them in and out is a bit of a performance but better than seeing the whole lot keel over in shock if you don’t bother! To harden them off, give them a short time in good shelter to start with (shelter from sun and wind), then over a period of several days to a week, give them more and more time outside, and more exposure to weather. Watch for sunburn on tender indoor-grown leaves!

The place you’re planning to plant should have had the soil prepared previously so that any added amendments have had time to settle in and break down a bit, and the soil has done any settling it’s going to do. It should be nicely damp, but not soggy (especially if you have clay soil). It should also be warm enough for the species you’re planning to plant. Broccoli doesn’t mind being transplanted into cool soil, but peppers and tomatoes won’t like it at all, and basil will pout for days or even just die!

New transplants benefit from protection from the sun for the first few days. Planting suring a spell of rainy or cloudy weather is great if you can get it, but you can also plant in the evening, and/or use shade cloth or shading structures for protection. Gradually expose the young plants to more and more sun until they settle in and get used to the new conditions.

The physical act of planting is pretty straightforward. Make a big enough hole to take the whole rootball, pop plant out of pot, put in hole, “puddle in” with water if you like, firm soil round roots, next. Some fine points:

• Most plants like to be transplanted with the soil level at the same point on their stem as when they were growing in their pots. Exceptions are tomatoes and peppers, which will grow roots along any stem you bury (don’t bury leaves! pinch them off first), and broccoli and lettuce, which don’t mind having any leggy stem up to the first set of leaves buried. Leggy tomato and pepper seedlings can be much improved by doing this.
• Don’t leave the roots exposed to air for any longer than you have to. Make the holes first, then pop each seedling out of its pot and straight into the hole.
• Don’t firm the soil too hard, especially if you puddled in with water. Some air needs to be left in the soil, you’re just making it firm enough to provide good support for the plant.
• It can help to create a watering basin around each plant. Plant a little deeper than the surrounding general soil level, then scrape the extra soil into a ridge around the plant so it sits in a shallow bowl.
• If you didn’t add fertiliser or compost to the whole bed, most plants appreciate some compost or enriched soil mixed into the bottom of the planting hole.
• If you’ll need support stakes or structures, make sure you install them before the plants get big enough to need them, and before you’ll damage new roots by adding them.
• Some plants benefit from being “pinched out” (the top one or two sets of leaves removed) at planting time. This removes some of the foliage and makes it easier for the disturbed roots to support the plant’s water needs, and also makes it grow bushier. Basil plants are a good example of this.
• Pest protection may be necessary, from collars to Reemay cloth to chicken wire. Take account of the pests that you have to deal with in your garden, and take preventative steps – it’s much better than trying to kill the pests later, after they’ve damaged your plants!

Keep a close eye on your seedlings after planting, to make sure they have enough water, and protection from sun, wind or pests.

First, take a look around the place you’re shopping, be it a local nursery, big box store, farmers market or even the supermarket. How do the plants look in general? Are they well taken-care-of? Do any of them badly need watering? If more than a very few plants are in bad shape, dried out, or dying, take your business elsewhere. You might otherwise find yourself taking home plants which have experienced severe stress before you bought them, and although they may look OK at the time, they’ll never grow as well as plants which have been properly cared for and grown on without being stressed.

Now look at the plants you want to buy.

You want seedlings which are well rooted (not only just sprouted) so that the rootball holds together well when you take it out of the container, but conversely they should not be pot-bound (having been in the pot too long so the roots are constricted and circling round and round inside the pot). A clue is to look at the drainage holes in the bottom of the container to see if roots are growing out. The only way to tell for sure is to turn the seedling out of its pot and look at the roots – carefully, without damaging it, of course.

The plants  should be stocky, with strong sturdy stems and an appropriate distance between sets of leaves. If they are tall and lanky, and seem floppy, they can be rescued if they are your only choice, but if you have options, pass them up for better specimens. Top growth should be in proportion to the size of the container, neither too large or too small.

They should be the right color for their variety. Most vegetable seedlings should be deep green, not yellowish, not streaky, and not purplish-looking unless they are a red-leaved variety.

They should not be carrying flowers or fruit, unless you’re buying a tomato plant in a big pot which is big enough to give it enough root room for its size. Even so, transplanting it when it’s in flower or fruit will set it back.

Salad greens should be as small as you can get away with. The bigger they are, the closer they are to “bolting” – sending up a flower stalk and going to seed, which usually means the leaves no longer taste good.

Very few seedlings are organically grown, so if this is important for you, you either need to raise your own or find a supplier who does grow organically. Your best bet for this may be a farmers market stallholder or a local nursery. You might also be able to find a local organic home grower who would be willing to grow seedlings for you along with their own.

Once you get your carefully chosen transplants home, take care of them and, most importantly, get them growing in the ground as soon as you can. Making them wait around in their pots until they are potbound makes all your care in choosing them go for nothing!

Which Vegetables Prefer to be Direct Seeded?

Root vegetables are the most obvious group here. Carrots and parsnips just don’t grow proper roots if you try to transplant them, so direct seeding is the way to go. I know of people who transplant beets, starting them in peat or newspaper pots which can be planted directly into the soil, but it’s easier to direct seed.

Beans and peas really prefer to be direct seeded although you can  transplants – they tend to grow a long taproot right away so toilet paper tubes can work.

The cucurbits (squash, cukes and melons) generally don’t like their roots disturbed so if you have a long enough season naturally, direct seeding works better – but for most of us, these plants need a longer season than we can give them with direct seeding, so transplants and careful planting are the way to go for cukes and melons. Squash can be direct seeded outside sooner, so they are a good candidate for direct seeding most of the crop, with a few transplants to get an early flow of fruits.

Salad greens grow well from direct seeding, and really have to be if you’re planting a patch of mesclun mix or mixed baby lettuce. Individual salad green plants can be done either way, direct seeding or transplants.

Vegetables which grow from tubers or bulbs like potatoes, garlic, and onions from sets, all get direct planted too.

Onions will grow from seeds but they tend to take quite a long time, so apart from spring onions, many people either use transplants or sets.

If you have a long enough season, you can even grow tomatoes, peppers and other warmth lovers from direct seeding – but most of us use transplants so that we get a worthwhile length of harvest.

Direct Seeding Preparation

Your bed preparation for direct seeding depends on the size of seed you’ll be planting. The finer the seed, the finer the soil surface on the bed needs to be. Carrots and parsnips also need the soil broken up to a fair depth in order to make good roots. The soil in the bed should be thoroughly damped to full depth and on the surface.

What seeds need to sprout well and grow is the right temperature, and the right amount of water and air. So, your soil needs to be warm enough for what you’re planting, damp, and not compacted. Ideally, it should be firm below the seeds (so that water can rise by capillary action) and loose enough above them to make it easy for the shoots to push through. You also want plenty of organic matter in the top layer to hold water and prevent the soil crusting over.

Planting the Seeds

My own method for small seeds is to soak the bed the day before, loosen the top layer with my “garden weasel” tool (see pictures at left), then press a groove into the soil with a 1×1 stick – either across the bed for short rows, or along the bed for long rows. This compresses the soil slightly. I plant my seeds in the groove by hand (I don’t find any of the hand-seeding tools to be any better than my fingers). I then either pull a little loose soil over them from beside the groove, sprinkle damp compost along the groove to cover them, or water gently without bothering to add a covering – tiny seeds will slip down into the soil crevices when you water.  I then tap gently along the row with the head of a rake to firm the soil.

If you want a “patch” rather than rows (say, for salad mix or baby lettuce), then just loosen the top layer of soil over the whole area, scatter seed over it,  jiggle the soil about – with a weasel, rake, hand fork or your fingers – to get the seeds down into the soil, and water. One warning on this method: if you have weeds seeds in your soil (and who doesn’t?) they will come up along with and mixed into your salad. Picking them out after wards is a pain however you do it. You could de-weed your soil by solarizing that patch before planting and disturbing the surface as little as possible, or you could spread weed-free potting mix or compost over the broadcast seeds instead of jiggling them into the existing soil. Either method will reduce the weed load but not completely eliminate it.

Larger seeds like peas, beans and squash get a bit less careful handling. Peas go either in a pressed groove as above, or a wide band scraped out with a hoe, but I then press them deeper into the soil with a finger and cover them about 3/4″ deep in soil, and firm. For beans, in the past I’ve made individual holes with a finger or stick and the dropped the beans down into the holes and pulled the soil over, then watered. This year I have a LOT of beans to plant, so I plant to make a planting stick out of a piece of plastic pipe – to do this, just cut the bottom of a 3/4″ or 1″ pipe at an angle, thenstick that end into the soil to planting depth and drop the bean down the tube. The big advantage of this method is that you can do it standing up instead of kneeling or crouching, which as I get older and creakier I think is a very good thing!

Squash usually get planted quite far apart as the plants are so big, but you often want to plant several seeds at the same location to be sure to get a good plant at each place. For these I use the finger or stick hole method, making three holes an inch or two apart in the approximate place where I want the plant, and dropping one squash seed into each. A little compost in the hole on top of the seed, water, and there you go.

Sugar Snap is a tall climbing or vining pea, and it needs a trellis, fence or strings to climb up. In my garden it will happily grow to 9 feet tall! Since I’m short and I don’t like having to pick my peas off a ladder, I clip them off once they reach about 6 feet.

Several other varieties of snap peas grow as shorter vines, 24 – 36″ tall. You’ll sometimes see them decribed as “bush” varieties but they are really short vines, and in my experience they still need some support. If you leave them to just grow on their own they will flop over eventually, especially if you have any wind in your garden. Bush varieties include Sugar Lace, Sugar Ann, and Sugar Daddy.

The big advantage of snap peas over regular shelling peas is that you get a lot more food off each plant, because you’re eating those thick, juicy pods as well as the peas inside.

Like all peas, snap peas like cool weather. When you plant them depends on your climate: if you’re in a cold-winter area where the ground freezes, plant in spring once the ground thaws and up to 2 months before your last frost date. In a mild winter climate you can sometimes get away with planting in fall and allowing the small plants to winter over, maybe with some protection. Here in the Pacific Northwest I plant my earliest batch in mid-February – not always successfully! – and then plant several more batches in mid-March, April, and even May in a shady spot. You can also grow peas in the fall, in theory anyway, but its a challenge getting them started in the end-of-summer heat so they will be ready to grow on and crop in the cooler fall weather. Temporary shading can help. In general, peas don’t mind some shade and will grow just fine in anything from part shade to full sun.

A fine seedbed and high fertility are not required. Peas are big seeds and have sturdy roots and stems, and they can deal with quite rough ground as long as it’s broken up a bit and weeds removed. They also fix nitrogen from the air as long as the friendly bacteria they use are present in the soil. If you’ve grown peas before in the spot you plan to use, the bacteria are probably already present, but you can use “garden inoculant”, a black powder sold where you buy your seeds, to supply them. Read the package and made sure the kind you’re buying is the right kind for peas, as there are different strains of bacteria for different legumes.

How much to plant? Depends whether you are growing to freeze as well as eat fresh, and how many people will be eating them. As a starting point for your calculations, I reckon to get 1lb of pods total over the harvest period, per foot of 3′ wide bed off Sugar Snap climbing peas. That’s with two 6″ wide bands of plants running along the bed, seeds sown about 2″ apart both ways in the band. You can see how that looks in the bed on the left, with the plants 4-6″ high. The harvest period for me is about 3-4 weeks. If you don’t want a whole lot at once, try several 3′ x 6′ patches planted at intervals of 2-4 weeks through the spring, to give you a continuous supply.

Snap peas need support.

Short vines like Sugar Ann, Sugar Daddy, Mega or Sugar Lace can make do with “pea sticks” – these are twiggy branches 2-4 ft long, pushed into the ground between the plants for them to cling to with their tendrils. Don’t wait too long to do this! The ideal time is when the seeds have come up and the plants are an inch or two high, but haven’t started to cling to each other.

Climbing snap peas are tall but not terribly heavy. They do cling to strings with their tendrils but I find they don’t cling tightly enough to stay up reliably – I run strings along the row at several heights as the vines climb, to hold them back against their supports. My own support structure consists of cedar 1×2 A-frames across the beds every 4 feet, joined by cedar 1×1 or 1×2′s at top and bottom of the frames running along the bed which have nails in, then strings run up and down between the nails. (This all-purpose structure works for beans, tomatoes and squash too).

In this picture the strings are wrapped around the top and bottom bars, but nails work much better – it’s faster and easier to run the strings in the first place, then to pull them off to compost, vines and all, at the end of the season.

What else can I tell you about growing snap peas… oh yes, pests and diseases!

Slugs and snails can cut the seedlings off as they come through. The best defence I’ve found is a copper strip round the whole bed, but you can use whatever normally works against slugs and snails in your area.

Birds are the most damaging pest in my garden. The first 2 years, no trouble at all. The third year: birds discovered the seedlings and pulled out all except two in an entire 20′ x 3′ bed! I replanted, and this time covered the bed with chicken wire to keep the birds off. That worked (garden fleece like Reemay works too), but you have to be careful of two things – one, that the birds can’t get under the netting at any point, and two, that you take the netting off before the peas have grown through it and started clinging together with their tendrils. In that case you have to leave the netting on the whole season, it’s hard to weed between the peas, the peas and weeds get tangled up in the netting and it’s a big mess to get it off at the end.

The only other problem I’ve had is powdery mildew which develops at the end of the harvest season in the summer heat. If it wasn’t for the mildew the peas would set a whole new crop of flowers and pods, but once the mildew takes a good hold the new pods are not fit to eat.

Other than that, snap peas and any other peas (I grow snow peas, shelling peas and soup peas for drying, too) are easy to grow, yummy to eat and altogether very satisfying.

• What you like to eat (and how much of it, and when)
• What grows well in your local climate
• What will growi n your specific conditions
• What’s most worthwhile to grow at home

What You Like to Eat

Obviously, there’s no point growing vegetables or fruit that you and your family won’t eat! Even though radishes are quick and easy, if your family doesn’t like them, don’t grow them.

Consider, too, how much of something you can eat before it goes past its best, especially if it can’t be stored. Salad greens are a good example. Things like lettuce and spinach can and should be planted multiple times in small batches to give you a new supply every few weeks.

What Grows Well in Your Climate

There are several things to consider here: temperatures, water, and length of growing season.

Temperature: some crops need a certain amount of heat or cold to succeed and unless you can give it to them it’s a waste of time and space to grow them. You can increase heat available to some extent using a greenhouse or other covering techniques, and cool things down a bit using shade, but there’s a limit to what can be done.

Rainfall / Water available: How much water do your plants have available, as natural rainfall or irrigation (city water, stored rainwater or well/lake/pond water)? Intensive growing beds need extra water applied in most climates in order to produce well. If you have little water available for irrigation, you can choose less water-hungry plants, space them far apart to give them a larger area of soil water to draw on, use mulch, use sunken beds or basins to hold water, or even use netting to catch mist.

Length of Season: non-hardy food plants need frost-free weather to grow, so the length of time between your average last frost date in spring and average first frost date in fall is critical. Vegetable growing books and seed catalogs often give “days to maturity” which you can compare with your growing season length. You may be able to extend the growing season earlier in spring and later in fall using row covers, cloches, tunnels, cold frames, greenhouses etc.

What Will Grow in Your Conditions

As well as the general climate in your area, the specific place you plan to grow in has conditions which will affect what you can grow and how much. These conditions include:

• Containers or in-ground
• size of area (start small!)
• hours of sunshine / shading
• vertical space (trellising increases what you can grow in a small space)
• windiness (you may need a windbreak, screens, or stakes)
• your growing skill
• soil quality and pH

Let’s look at some examples of how your conditions will affect your choices.

Tomatoes

• What kind do you like to eat? Cherry, beefsteak, roma, low acid, unusual colors?
• Do you want to save seed? Then you need non-hybrids
• Are they to eat fresh in salads or sandwiches, make sauce with, can, freeze, or dry?
• Do you need varieties which do well in heat (many kinds stop setting fruit over a certain temperature) or cool temps (many will never ripen if it’s too cool)
• Do you have a short season? Pick varieties with a low days-to-maturity and start them indoors

You can get tomato varieties which will grow into plants of any size from 8″ tall bushes for small pots, to 12′ tall vines which need sturdy trellises, stakes or cages. Tomatoes are supposed to need at least 6 hours of sun a day – but I’ve grown them on an East-facing patio where they got less than that and still produced some fruit.

Peas

• What kind? Traditional shelling peas, snow (sugar) peas, snap peas, or peas to be dried for soup?
• Climbing peas or bushes: you can get anything from 18″ tall to 8 feet and up.
• There are no hybrid peas, and they almost never cross varieties naturally, so you can save seed very easily.
• Some kinds are meant to come ripe all at once for freezing or canning batches. Others crop for several weeks to give you a steady flow for the table.
• Peas like cool weather so they are great to plant early (and will even overwinter in some climates). They crop in the summer. For later planted peas you can give them a shady area to protect from heat. Starting peas in midsummer to crop in the fall is more difficult, but can be done.

How Much to Grow

To start with, it makes more sense just to grow stuff and see what happens under your conditions. Once you have some idea, then you can predict how much you need to plant to get a certain harvest amount at a certain time, for fresh eating and to store. There are some books and sites which give yield figures, but to be honest the ranges are so wide, and the possible growing conditions so various, that they are not very useful.