As is traditional, I planted peas today.  Two varieties: Alaska Early Bush and Oregon Sugar Pod.  I’m trying a trick I read about somewhere (if this rings a bell, let me know.  It’s driving me crazy that I can’t remember where I saw it.): starting seeds in seedling mix outdoors to help germination.  The idea is that the light fluffy seedling mix is the best environment for starting the seed, but you still get to direct sow outdoors.  The best of both worlds!

First I dug a trench.  This bed has terrible clay soil that I’ve been working to amend.  I grew a cover crop there over the winter, and we dug that in a couple of weeks ago.  I’m hoping the peas will also give it a boost.  Anyway, I filled the trench with compost mixed with some of the dirt and very lightly firmed it.  Then I took a 2 inch pot and pressed it in to the soil every 6 inches.  Closer than that, and my previous hole would cave in as I made the next one.  Once the pot was all the way into the soil, I firmed up around the edges to ensure it would be structurally sound.  Here they all are.

Then I filled each hole with seed starter mix and planted the peas.  Cute, right?  Seed starter mix costs a fortune for some reason, so I wanted to do an experiment to see if this method actually helps.  I planted more peas in between, just in the compost.  Now we race!