L OCAL LIVING
11 DC
TIP OF THE WEEK garden from 10
after they are up a few inches will keep the soil moist and shielded from the sun. It helps to choose a
heat-resistant variety such as Wando, available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.
southernexposure.com). We’ve also had good luck with Maestro, which gives a bounteous harvest in 60 days (from Territorial Seed Co., www.
territorialseed.com), and Caseload (from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, www.
johnnyseeds.com), which takes 57 days. All are dwarf, bush-type varieties that need only a short trellis for support. All could be planted in
spring, too, and you might prepare a bed for them this fall, applying lots of manure or other organic matter, raking it in a little and firming the soil lightly with the back of the rake. You could even make a shallow furrow and be all set to go next year, without wondering whether the soil can be worked early without compaction. Just poke in the seeds.
Meanwhile, I’m now making rice salads with peas, crab cakes with peas, salads with peas. When someone visits, I put out a bowl of them and we shell them into our mouths as we talk. Is it silly to make a big deal of
a fall crop that bears for three weeks at best and is bookended by risky hot weather at the start and a fatal frost at the end? (The vines are cold-hardy, but the flowers and pods are not.) Am I crazy to be out there throwing protective sheets of plastic over a pea trellis at 11 o’clock on a cold October night? Give fall peas a try. Taste them. Then get back to me on that.
localliving@washpost.com
Damrosch is a freelance writer and the author of “The Garden Primer.”
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM 6
Read more about growing your own food at
washingtonpost.com/vegetable gardens.
Sow larkspur seed this month for flowering in late spring. The seed should be scattered in sunny borders that have been weeded and cultivated. Distinctive, feathery seedlings will appear by late winter and might need thinning in March. Avoid beds that are heavily mulched or treated with herbicides. Seed sources include Renee’s Garden (
www.reneesgarden.com) and Seeds of Change (www.
seedsofchange.com). — Adrian Higgins
Higgins’s gardening column will return next week. Follow @adrian_higgins on Twitter, and read his Groundwork posts Mondays on the All We Can Eat blog, at
washingtonpost.com/ allwecaneat.
ON WASHINGTONPOST.COM
Find more about gardening online Read monthly tips and watch how-to gardening videos at
washingtonpost.com/home.
6
D.C. SAMPLE SALE 40-75%off published list price!
October 22nd & 23rd, 2010 Friday 10am - 8pm, Saturday 10am - 5pm
415 8th Street NW(between D and E St. NW) phone 202-783-4888
please visit
www.artemide.us for more information and directions
Printed using recycled fiber.
THE WASHINGTON POST • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010
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