Eager to Plant...Peas, and Potatoes

Last week, I read something in one of the blogs I subscribe to, one hundred dollars a month, about planting growing peas from start to finish. I learned what I had done wrong in the past when it came to planting peas. It turns out that peas are a cold weather crop. So my planting them in May, resulted in poor results in the past. So I decided to give them a try again this year!

I have also planted potatoes in the past, with minimal success. And since Mavis on one hundred dollars a month has ambitiously purchased 90 pounds of seed potatoes to plant this year, I feel inspired to try it again. I will be growing my 'taters in containers...Trash cans to be specific.

So I was out wandering the local Walmart last week and I was feeling VERY tempted to buy seed potatoes. A 5lb bag of seed potatoes can produce about 25lbs of potatoes. We have a local store here in my town that is only open during planting time, and I had wondered if they were in fact open yet, so I put my Walmart 'taters back and risked a drive by on the seed store, and to my joy they were already open!

I love visiting my local seed store. For a small shop they have a lot of good things. And it is always good to support your local businesses. I love talking to the ladies that work there, I always learn new things! She told me that here in central Ohio, we plant peas on St. Patrick's Day...Well, that was only a couple of days away, so I bought a 1/4 pound of little marvel pea seeds and a 1/4 pound of sugar snap peas to plant in some of my extra large terra cotta pots that I have on my porch. And on St Patrick's day I went out and planted my pea seeds about  1" deep and 2" apart. In these large pots, I have tomato cages in both pots for the peas to climb on, in case I got peas of the climbing variety, but I believe these are both bush plants. I actually got quite a few holes planted. I hope they work out this year! I will let you know of course!

        

For my potatoes, I was told to plant them on Good Friday. So I still have time to collect my planting supplies. I like to buy a little each week and spread out my spending. At the seed store I also bought 5lbs each of 2 kinds of potatoes. White and red Potatoes. I plan on buying about 4 big plastic trash cans to grow them in. I will cut out the bottom, so when it comes to harvesting, I won't have to dig, just dump the containers and let the potatoes fall out! OR I will be building a container to grow them in, as I am leery of the plastic...I haven't decided. Either way, when I DO plant them next week, I will take step-by-step pictures to show you what I've decided.
I did research a few years ago about growing potatoes in containers. Instead of re-writing all the instructions now, I will give you a link to a site with very good instructions. If interested click here to learn about growing potatoes in containers.