I stopped by two nurseries in Berkeley and found some really cool plants, that I had to purchase.
From Westbrae Nursery:
– Meadow Foam (Limnathes douglasii)
– Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria)
– Sugar Snap Peas
From Berkeley Horticulutral Nursery:
– Broccoli Raab ‘Zamboni’
– Gai Lan ‘Green Lance’
– Leaf Broccoli ‘Getti di Naoli’
– Portuguese Kale ‘Galega da Folhas Lisas’
– Kale ‘Redbor’
– Tree Collard (Purple Stem)
– Snow Pea ‘Golden Podded Pea’
I’ve grown several generations of Snap Peas in our garden every fall/winter/spring… but I can’t seem to find the seeds that I saved from this spring’s harvest… so I was thinking of getting a new variety.
Our plants seem to grow taller and taller every year, with this past year growing well over 6 feet. It was way too tall and over-towered the other plants around it. So I’m looking for a variety that only grows to about 4-5 feet tall.
This evening after work, my friend needed to go to Home Depot, so I went along to see if I can find any kinds of Snap Pea seeds. No luck. All they had were Snow Peas, which I don’t like that much.
I did a search online and found two different varieties that I would like:
Super Sugar Snap
58 days. Grow about 5 feet tall. Improved variety of Sugar Snap (which I have been growing). I found some at Territorial Seed Co.
Super Snappy Pea
65 days. I’ve never seen this variety and its pods are huge; 8-10 peas per pod. Grows 28-32″. A Burpee Exclusive. I placed this on my Folia Wish List 
. [Update Oct. 26, 2010: I ended up ordering this.]
Screenshot taken from Burpee’s site.
After writing this, I got an email from Annie’s Annuals with this variety:
Carouby de Mousanne
60 Days. It’s a Snow Pea (which I usually don’t like to grow), but it doesn’t get fibrous (which is why I don’t like to grow it) when the seed starts to swell. Grows 6 feet tall. Here’s the description page on Annie’s Annuals website.
My nephew from Japan left yesterday :( and his 4 kids are back with their mom… so my other nephew from Korea, his wife and his 2 kids are left staying here until Friday. It’s been so much fun with the kids. I got to spend some quality time with them, and they feel closer, considering I’ve only seen them about 3 time before. It was fun wrestling with them and giving them piggyback rides (well, the smaller ones). One of my great-nephews also likes to give me massages which was a real treat.
Today, I was going to pull up the old Brussels Sprouts, but I didn’t feel like doing too much work, so that’ll have to wait.
I ended up dead-heading some of the spent Daffodil flower and pulling up weeds in the front yard.
I also left the seedlings of the Swiss Chard, Chin-Chiang Cabbage, Bok Choy, Lettuces and Sugar Snap Peas out in the back patio after harding them off for the past 2 days. I got tired of bringing them in and out, so it’s pretty much sink or swim for them.
The Sugar Snap Peas, Roma Tomato, Clemson Spineless Okra and Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage have sprouted in 4 days.
…and last in the Coleus seedling race: Coleus ‘Dark Star’ who took 8 days to sprout.
I just checked my Jiffy Mini-Greenhouse planted with Coleus and to my surprise, three of them have started to come up, just after four days. They are ‘Kong Green’, ‘Kong Scarlet’ and ‘Tabasco?’.
I also sow more seeds into the Jiffy Greenhouse (72 Pellets):
– Sugar Snap Peas (12 pellets)
– Japanese Long Purple Eggplant (6 pellets)
– Roma Tomato (3 pellets)
– Clemson Spineless Okra (3 pellets)
– Bok Choy (12 pellets)
– Hybrid Summer Boy Chin-Chiang Cabbage (6 pellets)
– Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard (6 pellets)
– Salad Bowl Lettuce (8 pellets)
– Grand Rapids Lettuce (8 pellets)
– Mighty Red Oak Lettuce (8 pellets)
I didn’t have work today, so I was able to do a little garden work and snap more pictures.
I checked the Brussel Sprouts and Swiss Chard and they are doing okay, but there was a lot of snail/slug damage :)
The Sugar Snap Peas that I planted on the 8th are sprouting. I can’t tell if the leaves have not opened up, or if they were eaten by snail, slugs, pill bugs and/or earwigs. I’ll have to recheck tomorrow.
I turned the leaves in the compost bin, and you can see the steam rising. Looks like the BioStack is doing a much better job at heating the compost up than my garbage can bins. I did notice these weird bugs under the lid with ants tending them, kinda aphid size, but they looked a little different than aphids.
The Dutch Irises and Spring Star Flower that I potted up on the 8th are emerging.
The Coleus survivors are surprisingly still hanging on, but I really should get some cuttings… and I should get off my behind and get the old aquarium in the patio and bring it in and put some grow-lights!!!
I took a day off of work today to bring my mom to a doctor’s appointment. Before we left, I had the chance to check out the back garden, which I hardly get to see in daylight since the days are so damn short.
I turned the compost in our new Smith & Hawkins BioStack Composter, which I won at a city composting workshop, and can definitely feel the heat being generated. I want to get another one, so if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to get rid of yours, I’ll take it.
