My First Fatality of the Year

Sadly, I lost an English pea plant today. I'm sure it had nothing to do with Prince William marrying commoner, Kate Middleton.

The plant started to get sick while still in its peat pot. I think I let it dry out too much. While the peat pots allow for more growth than the seedling cell trays, peat pots dry out quickly in the sun and you have to be diligent to make sure the seedlings do not dry and wilt.


A happier pea plant wraps its tentacles around
the trellis. Peas are climbers.

I had replanted the sickly seedling along with it's pea plant buddies into a 30" long 6" deep window box and it seemed to perk up. Then, on Friday it collapsed again. I watered it and gave it a dose of garden soil inoculant near its roots, but the poor little thing didn't perk up.



A pea seed looks like a dried out pea.

Garden soil inoculant should be used prior to planting by sprinkling in the furrows during planting, but I didn't receive mine in the mail in time. My seedlings had outgrown their birth-pots and I was rushed into a replant. However, I've tried to add the inoculant by pushing it down near the roots. I hope I didn't make a mistake there.
Garden soil inoculant

Not wanted to waste the space in my limited garden, I pulled it out this morning and planted a couple of seeds in its place. I put a couple in there because you never know what's going to germinate. I had planted 6 seedling cells of peas, but ended up with only 4 plants. I can also try to germinate some peas between warm, wet paper towels. That's how I germinated some beans and spinach and it's a good way to find out which seeds are good and which are duds before planting.

In other news, I think I rescued the strawberries. They look pretty good today:

But, I'm not sure whether I should water them or not. Last time they were watered was the rain we had on Monday night/Tuesday morning, but they were soaked and during my rescue I had added more potting soil. Since the soaked soil nearest the roots was not changed during rescue, I think I'm going to wait until tonight before considering watering again and hope I'm not sorry.

What I've learned:

The garden is a living and breathing system. As plants die, others should be replanted. As product is harvested, more should be planted.