Yesterday when I posted my latest garden photos I forgot to include a picture of what the garden looks like from the back. In the last two garden beds, you can see carrots popping up. Originally I was going to companion plant tomatoes with those carrots, but when it came time to plant, I suddenly realized I had no room for my first batch of bush beans. Eeek! So this year I ended up planting bush beans {Mayflower} and carrots {dragon} together. Something new for me. But according to the book The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food,
This year I also have tomatoes companion planted with beets, Swiss chard, radishes and spinach. If there is one thing I love about growing food in raised garden beds, it’s that you can pack a whole bunch of plants into a really small space. We built our garden boxes 3 summers ago, and they are still going strong.
*Here is a great tutorial on how to build a raised garden bed.
And the peas… I forgot to mention the peas. Last night I spotted the very first sugar snap pea of the season on the garden trellis. Hot diggety dog! Pretty soon we will be eating stir fry for dinner at least 3 nights a week. I can’t wait.
Did you plant peas this year? What kind? Sugar Snap? Snow? Shelling? Have you harvested any peas yet? What did you do with them?
Peace Out Girl Scouts, I’m off to do some double coupon shopping.
♥ Mavis
If you would like to learn more about growing organic food and companion planting you should check out the book The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food
Heidi says
I planted sugar snap peas the day after Easter. Last week some animal came along and chewed them all down….. so sad I was really looking forward to my kids eating them straight out of the garden. How do you keep the animals away from your garden?
Jenn says
I planted 6 sugar snap pea plants (not from seed, just store bought plants but I will seed next year!) and we’ve already gotten some off of them. They haven’t made it out of the garden yet though. My almost 2 year old is LOVING them. Who can say no when your kid asks for more sugar snap pea’s at 7:00am 🙂 Not this mom!
Great garden Mavis!
SC says
I was wondering what your raised beds are made out of?
alyssa says
I would never try and plant carrots next to tomatoes although they are supposed to be companion plants. Last year I planted some carrots next to my tomatoes after reading all about companion planting. While my tomatoes turned out fine, the carrots not so good. They turned out to be like baby carrots, so small and tiny. Then I read somewhere that tomatoes tend to do that to carrots, dwarf them when planted next to them. Those suckers are real hungry for food and nutrients that they just won’t let the poor carrots get any. So from now on, it’s only tomato and basil for me I guess.
myna lee johnstone says
i sprout most of my seeds first and then plant
i have several varieties of peas about 6″ high but i was a bit late getting to it
because i thought it was going to be wet wet wet
bobbie says
I have snow peas. They seem to be doing well, but the peas themselves are kinda tough tasting this year. I’m wondering if its due to the unseasonably HOT weather. Hmmmmm.
Jamie says
I was wondering how do you water your raised beds? Do you do it by hand or with a sprinkler or something else?
Mavis says
I used a sprinkler for the larger areas and a hand water the rest. Luckily it rains a lot around here so I don’t have to water that often. 🙂