Peas and beans!

It's about two weeks since my last gardening post - and I now have plant babies, which is quite exciting!  It has become part of my morning routine to go downstairs and check on my gardening beds, with cup of tea in hand.

I'm recording progress every so often on my spreadsheet.  Radishes were first to break through the soil in the modular garden beds, closely followed by peas and snow peas.  All 12 peas sprouted but only two of 10 snow peas have emerged.   (The snow pea seeds had a best before date of August 2017, so I wasn't sure how successful they'd be).

The pea seedlings are now almost a week old and are growing quite quickly.  I gave the back row some satay skewer supports this evening, to guide them toward the chain-mesh fence.  I'm hoping that plan works.  I was going to rig some heavy string-lines for the front row but Nick suggested longer sticks as an easier method.  Fingers crossed peas are easily trained!

Given so many of the snow peas didn't make it I was losing hope for my beans, which were planted a day earlier and had the same expected germination range.  Yep, call me impatient!  I slept in on Mothers Day and hadn't done my usual morning rounds. I was surprised when Erin commented about the bean plants.  Where there had been nothing the previous day, six tall seedlings had grown overnight.  It was quite amazing!

A few more beans have surfaced since then.  I planted two dwarf varieties - butter and brown beauties.

There isn't any advice on the packets about height or whether they'll need support, so I'll do some more research.  It may be that they don't require any assistance - and that's OK, less effort for me!

In other progress - as well as the radishes, a few other tiny seedlings are poking through in the modular beds. I planted coriander and spring onion seeds in pots on the verandah and they have also sprouted.  My tomato seedlings are growing nicely, too.  There are even a few buds on one plant.  How good is that?!

I'm trying to propagate some succulent leaves.  They are in the blue bowl, which sits on our kitchen bench so I remember to mist them every so often.  That project started on 6 May.  It seems it may be another few weeks before I see any signs of success.  I remain hopeful!

The white PVC pipe near the tomato pot is a worm tower. Nick made it for me last year after watching some YouTube clips.  The theory is that food scraps are dropped down the pipe, which is open at the bottom.  (There is a lid for the top of the pipe, which I haven't yet fitted).  Worms access food via holes in the pipe, below ground level. I'll have to mound some more soil around the base cos one of the access holes is exposed - and I wasn't able to set the pipe any deeper.