Pea Teepee

This spring, while we were putting together our raised beds, we also decided to make something that our one year old son might enjoy during the summer: a pea teepee.  I got the idea from a farm I worked at that used to have kids make a pea teepee as part of their April Vacation Camp. It is just a nice, sheltered area that kids can crawl into and be hidden from the sun while munching on healthy snacks.

To construct it, we did a bit of frame-less lasagna gardening. We spread out some rotted horse manure, but down a weed block layer of paper products, then added a bit more manure to encourage all the worms and helpful insects to work their way to the surface. Then we added a few layers of whatever we had to spare to build a soil layer. We put down leaves, a bit of seaweed, some peat moss, and potting soil since we didn't have much to work with. Finally, we topped it off with a weed block layer of organic bark mulch.

The actual teepee was constructed using some tall (maybe 7 or 8 feet tall), straight sticks we found in our yard. We tied them together at the top with twine, and then securely buried the ends in our little circular lasagna garden. I then went around and secured the sticks together with twine, making sure to leave an entrance. I went around the teepee several times at about one foot intervals. Then, in-between the sticks, I added some twine vertically so that the pea plants would have something beside the sticks to climb up.

Since peas love cooler weather, we planted pea seeds right away. I made little pockets in the mulch with potting soil and planted them all around the teepee. After about two weeks, we started seeing our first little sprouts.

The sprouts were not coming in evenly though, so I went ahead and planted another round of seeds to fill in the gaps. Those came in much more successfully, and soon our teepee was surrounded by young plants.

Everyday, my son enjoyed running into the teepee while I watered the peas. The pea plants grew full and healthily, but they never got as tall as I had hoped they would. In the end, when they started flowering and producing pea pods, I don't even think they had climbed two feet up the teepee. I was rather disappointed because this didn't create the little hideaway I had been hoping for, but my son still enjoyed playing inside, and loved snacking on peas with me on those early summer days.

In mid July we harvested the last of the peas. Some of the plants were starting to shrivel up, and they weren't producing any new flowers. My son and I had fun picking the last of the peas, shelling them out on the grass, and munching on fresh peas. I then pulled up all the plants and laid them around the teepee to start decomposing and put nutrients back in the soil for next year.

pea plants laid around to decompose

Next year I will have to do a little more research before purchasing my pea seeds. I need to make sure I find a variety that grows tall so we can fill out the teepee a little bit better. I might even end up trying something other than peas depending on where my research leads me.

How our garden grows

6.13.2013

Previously I mentioned that I mixed up a variety of plants in each bed hoping that they would positively effect each other and grow better. For the most part, since this is my first year trying this, I relied on other people's experience and used charts I found on the internet for good companion plants. Here is an example:

In this first bed, I planted baby mesclun mix, cucumbers, and bush beans. The idea is that cucumbers will climb the trellis and stay dry, while also providing shade for the cool temperature loving lettuce. The bush beans in the middle put lots of nitrogen in the soil, which the other plants need.

cucumbers

The second bed has two varieties of tomatoes, some basil, and later I added merrigolds hoping to prevent some beetles from eating my tomato plants.

In the third bed I planted strawberries and baby spinach, which are supposed to do well together.

In the fourth bed I planted kale and nasturtiums. I also put in some zucchini on its own at one end, since apparently zucchini doesn't make friends well.

kale

 In the fifth bed planted rainbow chard, broccoli and marigolds.

rainbow chard

In the sixth bed, I planted a famous guild called the "three sisters". This consists of corn, pole beans, and squash...in this case pumpkins. The idea is that the beans put nitrogen in the soil for the corn, while the corn provides support for the bean plants. The squash provides shade on the ground with its large leaves. The three sisters guild is a technique that we have borrowed from our Native Americans because it gave them such great success.

corn and beans

corn and beans

pumpkins

6.29.2013

In the first year, you are supposed to pick off all the strawberry blossoms so the strawberry plants focus on extablishing excellent root systems so they thrive in the following season. I couldn't resist allowing one blossom to remain so we could sample a berry.

mesclun mix

bush beans and cucumbers

rainbow chard

brocolli

basil

nasturtium

kale

zucchini

7.21.2013

Our largest (sad) baby spinach plant

strawberries

Broccoli, rainbow chard and marigolds

One of the only broccoli to survive

Most of the broccoli was eaten by insects

The largest of the rainbow chard

Mesclun mix, growing back after one harvest

First of the bush beans

cucumbers

Blossoms in the zucchini

One of the surviving kale

Most of the kale was eaten by insects

Nasturtium blossoms

Nasturtium blossoms

tomato blossoms

First of the tomatoes

basil

the three sisters guild

corn and pole beans

pumpkins going crazy

first pumpkin blossoms appearing

So far, compared to other years I have gardened in tilled plots, the plants seem smaller and overall less fruitful. I think this is due in part to the fact that the soil hasn't been well established yet (it has still not broken down since we just assembled the lasagna style beds in the spring), we didn't fill the beds as much as we should have, and the cardboard we placed down as a weed block hasn't broken down enough to allow the plant roots to expand as much as they would like. In the past, we have had insect problems, but they haven't decimated entire sets of crops like they did our broccoli and kale this year. I think I will be spending this winter doing a little more research about what kinds of things to plant to help with insect control, because we will not be using pesticides.