Trellising the Peas

The peas are looking for something to climb so it is time to build the trellis for them. If you remember we put T-posts in the garden when we laid it out, before we planted anything. We did this so we would not disturb roots by driving the posts after the plants were growing.

I made the trellis by stretching galvanized steel wire between two of the posts at the top and bottom. After going around the post I wrapped the wire back on itself with a pair of pliers. I also took the end of the wire and bent it around back on itself to make it less likely to poke or scrape me as I am working in the garden.

Then, I took twine and zig-zaged it between the top and bottom wires. There are many more pea plants on one side than the other, so I slid the twine towards the side with the most plants.  The twine pulls on the wires and makes them bow up and down in the middle. This in turn makes the twine want to slip toward the center. To stop this I bent the wires to make little dips that would keep the twine in place.

Also once I got done doing everything, I discovered that the bottom wire was too high for the plants to reach. One of the great thing about T-Posts is that they hold wire strongly, but you can slide the wire up and down by bending wire out on the nub side of the T-post, moving it, and then flattening the wire back out. So that's what I did to slide it down.
Then I had to untangle the peas and lean them over to the trellis. The natural fibers of the twine did a good job of grabbing the tendrils.

Other stuff I did today

I thinned the mustard and turnip greens. I did it with scissors the same way I thinned the radishes. Watch thinning radishes here. 

Before

After

The other plants seem to be growing well. There are some tiny weeds coming up all over so I did some pulling there.
The red lettuce did not come up at all, and have given up hope on them. I am not going to replant because the crop won't have time to grow before we use the square for another crop.

The lettuce squares: purple on the left, and green on the right. The purple has not sprouted.

One Swiss chard has finally come up. Maybe some others will follow soon. The square it is growing in is scheduled to have the chard all year so I may replant.

The Swiss chard is in the middle. There are lots of little weed seedlings around too.

The carrots are getting close to thinning. If you remember we broadcast the seed instead of planting them in neat rows. Also, some of the carrot seeds washed into surrounding squares, but not as many as I might have feared.