just another gardening blog…
How long can snow peas flower when it’s 90 degrees outside? Not very long, indeed.
Snow peas are considered an early season garden plant because they do well in cool weather. They stop flowering when the heat becomes unbearable.
The first planting of snow peas was a bust. There was very little germination of seeds that were 3 years old, so more was planted with newer seed in the hopes that we weren’t too late to get a crop in while the weather was still on the cool side.
It’s time to snip off our favorite herbs as they’re most flavorful just before they bloom.
In our garden we have the following herbs this year:
The first of these to bloom is thyme. A large thyme plant planted next to the house got an early start compared to two other plants out in the garden some distance from the south-facing side of the house. The plant next to the house is starting to bloom, so the thyme that I harvested today was from the two plants in the garden.
The thyme that was growing into the area where the cucumbers will be trellised was harvested by simply pulling up a handful of runners at the outer most edge and snipping them off with scissors. Any rootlets or brown spots were trimmed away and left to fall on the ground.
The handful of herb was shook a few times against a hand or leg to dislodge any potential insects and then placed in a brown paper bag that was labeled with the name of the herb.
A couple of tiny black beetles were dispensed quickly, but other than that the only “bug” I saw was a light green caterpillar on a dill leaf.
About this being the tastiest time to snip some herbs for the kitchen, well I really don’t know. I mean, I haven’t done any taste tests to show that you really should collect herbal leaves before the plant blooms, but it must be one of those bits of knowledge that gets handed down from one generation to the next as a truism.
The two oreganos, dill and thyme met my scissors today. The herbs were brought inside and laid out on brown paper bags or newspaper.
From here the groups of herbs will be kept on their separate papers and turned often.