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  Try these varieties of sweet and flavorful snap peas:

  ‘Cascadia': These 2-foot-tall vines resist the pea enation virus disease (a problem in the Pacific Northwest; see the later section "Pesky pea problems") and produce 3-inch, dark green peas 58 days after planting.

  ‘Sugar Ann': The earliest maturing snap pea, this variety is ready for harvest in 52 days. The plants grow only 2 feet tall, producing sweet, 2- to 3-inch pods. Because this snap pea is a dwarf variety, it doesn't need support and can be grown in containers. ‘Sugar Sprint' is similar to ‘Sugar Ann' but doesn't produce stringy pods.

  ‘Sugar Bon': A 1- to 2-foot-tall snap pea, this plant matures in 56 days and resists powdery mildew disease. Because of its size, this variety is super for containers.

  ‘Sugar Lace II': These 30-inch-tall vines have few leaves and many tendrils, making the 3-inch-long pods easy to see. The plant is self-supporting and disease resistant. It matures in 68 days.

  ‘Super Sugar Snap': These vines grow to 6 feet tall, producing tons of sweet, long pods and peas 65 days after planting. This variety is shorter and more disease resistant than the original ‘Sugar Snap', which is still available.

  An earlier harvest: Snow peas

  If you've eaten a vegetable dish in a Chinese restaurant, you've probably tried these sweet-tasting, flat-podded peas. Snow peas are the easiest peas to grow because you don't have to wait for the pea pods to fill out to harvest them. They're tender, stringless, and best when harvested before the peas inside begin to swell. Here are some of the best producing varieties to try:

  ‘Dwarf Gray Sugar': This viny, 2- to 3-foot-tall plant needs support but produces 3-inch, dark green pods 57 days after planting. The pink flowers this plant produces are ornamental, so you'll enjoy how they dress up your garden.

  ‘Golden Sweet': This Indian heirloom features unique golden-colored pods on 6-foot-tall green vines that mature in 65 days. The pods stay golden when cooked, making them beautiful additions to stir-fry and salads.

  ‘Mammoth Melting Sugar': This 4- to 5-foot-tall heirloom features 5-inch-long pods that stay sweet longer than other varieties. It matures in 68 days after planting.

  ‘Oregon Giant': These large 4- to 5-inch sweet pods grow on disease-resistant, 3-foot-tall vines 60 days after planting.

  ‘Oregon Sugar Pod II': Another large-podded, sweet-tasting snow pea, this variety grows to 4 feet tall and matures its pods 68 days after planting. Like ‘Oregon Giant', it's also disease resistant.

  Get 'Em in the Ground: Growing Beans and Peas

  Peas and beans are like siblings: They have a lot in common but also have some different preferences. For instance, both peas and beans like moderate moisture throughout the growing season and well-drained soil that isn't heavily amended (nutrient-improved) with fertilizer. And neither is very demanding at all. The fundamental difference between pea and beans, however, is that peas like cool climates and beans prefer warm ones. If you get the timing right — by planting peas so they mature when it's cool and beans when it's hot — these two siblings will reward you with a bounty of legumes.

  Planting legumes for an ample harvest

  When planting legumes, choose a sunny spot with well-drained soil and create a raised bed (see Chapter 3). Raised beds help keep pea seeds from getting soggy while they germinate in cool spring soil; at the same time, raised beds also warm up the soil for bean seeds, which you plant in late spring and summer. In the following sections, I explain how to prepare the soil for your legumes, figure out when to plant, and discover how to give them the proper support.

  Preparing the soil

  Plants need nitrogen to grow, and most of the time they get it from the soil. Legumes are unique, however, in that they can use the nitrogen in the air through a special relationship with a type of bacteria called a rhizobium. This bacteria naturally occurs in soil and attaches itself to legume roots, living off the plants. In exchange, the bacteria takes the atmospheric nitrogen and changes it into a form that the plants can use. Beans and peas get the nitrogen they need, and the bacteria gets a home. So don't worry about adding more nitrogen fertilizer to legumes; they can take care of themselves. If you see bumps or nodules on the roots of your plants, you know that bacteria is at work.

  Books and catalogs often suggest that you buy your own bacteria inoculant powder to add to bean and pea seeds when planting. This powder really isn't necessary. Soil already has bacteria in it, so usually you don't need to add any extra to your seeds. The exception, however, is with very sandy or poor soil. These types of soil need a one-time inoculation (the mixing of powder with seeds at planting), which peppers the soil with bacteria and gives plants the boost they need. After the rhizobium is in the soil, you don't need to add it yearly.

  Even though legumes don't need extra nitrogen, they benefit from a 2- to 3-inch layer of composted manure worked into the soil before planting. For poor soils with low fertility, add an organic fertilizer high in phosphorous and potassium, such as 5-5-5 (see Chapter 15).

  Determining when to plant

  With beans, wait until the soil is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit before planting. Beans planted in cool soil rot before germinating. Stagger your bush bean planting dates by planting small batches of seeds every week or so (see Chapter 16 for more on succession planting). By staggering the plantings, you'll have a continual harvest all summer.

  Peas like cool soil; in fact, they can germinate in 40-degree soil. As soon as the soil dries out, build your raised beds and plant your seeds. You can determine whether your soil is dried out by squeezing a handful of it; if no water trickles out and the soil clump feels moist and breaks up easily when poked with your finger, the soil is dried out.

  You can plant peas 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost date in your area if the soil is ready. Pea seeds germinate better in 60- to 70-degree soil, but if you wait until the soil is warmer, the plants will get off to a late start. By the time the peas would begin flowering, the air temperature would be too warm (above 80 degrees), and your plants and production would suffer.

  You also can grow peas as a fall crop, which you start in summer so the plants mature in the cool days of autumn. I've had success planting snow peas as a fall crop. You can harvest these legumes sooner than English and snap peas because you can eat the flat pea pods as soon as they form and before the freezing weather hits.

  To help pea seeds germinate in cold or hot soils, try pregerminating the seeds (see Figure 7-1). Place the pea seeds in a moist paper towel in a dark, warm spot for a few days. Check the seeds daily; when you see a small root begin to grow, plant the peas in the ground. Pregerminating helps the peas get off to a faster start and reduces the chance that they'll rot in cool soil.

  Figure 7-1: Pregerminate pea seeds indoors by soaking them in a dark, warm spot.

  Spacing properly and providing support

  How close you plant your legumes depends on the varieties you've chosen. The following guidelines can help:

  Bush beans grow best in rows on top of a raised bed. In rows 1 to 2 feet apart, plant the individual seeds within 1 to 2 inches of each other. Then thin the beans to 4 to 6 inches apart after they germinate and emerge from the soil. (Chapter 13 provides pointers on how to thin your vegetable seedlings.)

  Because you plant peas when the soil is cooler, the germination percentage may be less than with beans. So, on your raised bed, plant your peas less than 1 inch apart in rows 6 inches apart.

  Tall vining varieties of beans, such as pole beans, and tall varieties of peas need support to grow their best. The type of support needed depends on the plant (see Figure 7-2). Pole bean shoots spiral and wrap themselves around objects that they can climb, and peas attach themselves to objects with tendrils (grabbing shoots that hold onto whatever they come in contact with). Generally, beans like to climb poles, and peas like to climb fences. The height of your fence or pole depends on the varieties that you're growing: A 4- to 5-foot fence is good for most peas, and a 6- to 8-foot
pole is good for pole beans.

  Keep your fences and poles within reach because if the plants grow too tall, you'll need to use a ladder to harvest. For more information on trellises, fences, and teepees, see Chapter 15.

  Plant both pea and bean seeds 1 to 2 inches deep. Plant pole beans around individual poles; you should have 4 to 6 pole beans around each pole, about 6 inches away from the pole (see Figure 7-3). In between the pea rows, place your trellis or chicken wire so the peas can climb both sides of a fence (or whatever you have for them to climb on).

  Figure 7-2: Climbers versus twiners.

  Figure 7-3: Plant beans around a pole.

  After they start to grow, beans and peas need little attention other than regular watering and weeding. Both benefit from a layer of hay or straw mulch placed around the rows. The hay or straw mulch reduces the need for weeding and keeps the soil moist. (See Chapter 15 for more on mulch and other maintenance.)

  Be careful when weeding around peas because they have shallow root systems. Instead of digging in the soil around the roots, pull any weeds by hand or bury young weeds with soil as they germinate.

  Thwarting pests and diseases

  One nice thing about beans and peas is that they're susceptible to only a few serious pests or diseases. However, some of the common problems that plague other vegetables, such as damping off, fusarium wilt, powdery mildew, and leaf blight, also can be problematic for peas and beans (see Chapter 17). You can avoid many of these problems in vegetables by rotating crops, tilling in the fall, and growing resistant varieties; see Chapter 16 for details. The following sections describe some problems specific to beans and peas.

  Battles for beans

  Here are the most troublesome of the bean problems along with some advice on how to solve (and prevent!) them:

  Bald heading: If your bean seedlings emerge from the soil without leaves, they may have a condition called bald heading. Insects can cause this condition and so can seed that has been damaged. It can occur when you plant the seeds too deep in the ground or in gravel soil, which causes the leaves to rip off as they try to break through the soil. To prevent this condition, prepare the seed bed by removing rocks, sticks, and clods of soil before planting; and don't plant too deep. Leafless beans don't produce any crops, so if you see any leafless beans, pull them out and replant.

  Mexican bean beetle: This ladybug relative has an orange-yellow shell with 16 black spots on it. The adult beetles lay masses of orange eggs on the undersides of maturing bean plants. When the eggs hatch, the 1/3-inch, spiny yellow young that emerge feed on the bean leaves, defoliating the plant. To control these pests, do the following:

  • Plant early maturing varieties that are finished producing before the bean beetles become plentiful.

  • Crush any egg masses that you see.

  • Clean up old bean plant debris where the plants overwinter (live throughout the winter).

  • Spray the adult beetles with pyrethrin (a botanical insecticide made from pyrethrum flowers).

  Rust: If your plants have red or orange spots on their leaves and then they yellow and die, you may have rust disease. This fungal disease overwinters on bean plant debris left in the garden and infects new plants in summer when the weather is right (warm temperatures and high humidity). To prevent rust disease, clean up plant debris and till your garden in fall. The next growing season, rotate bean plantings to another section of the garden. Also, don't work in your garden when the leaves are wet; wet leaves provide the moisture that rust disease spores need to be able to spread.

  Pesky pea problems

  Peas don't have many disease or pest problems, but here are a few to watch out for:

  Pea aphid: These pear-shaped, 1/8-inch, green insects suck the juices from pea leaves and stems and can stunt a plant's growth and cause it to wilt. If your plants are severely affected by these insects, spray the plants with Safer's insecticidal soap.

  Pea enation virus: Pea enation virus is a particular problem for peas grown in the Pacific Northwest. The virus, which is spread by aphids (another reason to control the pest), causes plants' leaves and pods to be stunted and deformed. The best solution is to grow disease-resistant varieties such as ‘Cascadia'.

  Keep on pickin': Harvesting your crop

  As you probably know, when it comes to harvesting vegetables, timing is everything. Keep a close eye on your beans and peas as they start to mature and pick often. Beans and peas can get overmature, tough, and stringy quickly, especially in warm weather. Here's how to tell when the beans you've planted are ready for harvest:

  You can harvest snap beans when the pods are firm and crisp and the seeds inside are undeveloped. (If the pod is smooth and not bumpy, you know that the seeds haven't developed yet.) Carefully hold the bean stem with one hand and pull the individual beans off with your other hand to avoid breaking the plants.

  The more beans you pick, the more you'll get. That's because the plant wants to produce mature seeds and you keep frustrating it by picking the pods. So be sure to harvest even if you're not going to eat all the beans immediately. Remember, you can always share your crop with hungry friends and family.

  Harvest shell beans when the pods are full, green, and firm but haven't dried out yet. You can store the beans in a refrigerator for a few days before cooking them.

  Let dried bean pods dry on the plant until they naturally begin to split and then harvest them. Break the bean seeds out of the pods by rubbing the pods in your hands, which shatters them. Store the beans in glass jars in a cool place; you can either eat them or save them to plant next year.

  Peas lose quality quickly, so picking them when they're undermature rather than overmature is better. Also, try to cook them the same day; they turn starchy quickly if you keep them for more than 1 or 2 days. Here are some guidelines for harvesting peas:

  You harvest English and snap peas when the pods are full and before they fade in color. Upon harvesting snap peas, cut off the cap (stem end) of the pod and take the string (along the seam) out of the pod; these are the only two parts of the pod that are chewy.

  You can pick snow peas anytime before the pea seeds inside the pods begin to form. After the peas begin to fill out, the pods get tough and stringy.

  You can harvest the tender shoots and tendrils of peas. Harvest from the end of the shoots back 2- to 3-inches including the leaves and tendrils. The shoots and tendrils are great sautéed or mixed raw in salads. It's a way to get the pea flavor without the peas and to use more parts of the pea plant.

  Chapter 8: Vigorous Vines: Cucumbers, Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash

  In This Chapter

  Choosing the best vining varieties for your garden

  Understanding how to grow and maintain your viners

  If the heat is on, it's time to grow your vining veggies. This group of vegetables is part of the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae), and it includes cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins. Gourds also are in this family, but I discuss them in Chapter 11.

  What all these vegetables have in common is their love of heat, their ability to grow long stems (and vine to great lengths), and the fact that they have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. Unlike the other vegetables that I mention in this book (which have both male and female parts in the same flower), the viners need someone to play Cupid and bring pollen from the male flower to the female flower in order to produce fruit. This process is called pollination, and usually bees play the role of the chubby cherub. Of course, there are exceptions to the Cupid rule, and I discuss them in the sections about the individual vegetables in this chapter.

  This large family of vegetables is known for producing lots of fruits and taking up lots of room in the process. However, modern plant breeders have responded to the need for smaller, space-saving vegetable plants by breeding bush (nonvining) varieties of some favorite cucumber-family crops. So now you have one more reason to grow some cucumbers and squash. Actually, if you've ever tasted a vine-ripened mel
on or cucumber or baked a homegrown winter squash, you're probably hooked. Their flavor and texture are much better than anything you can buy in stores, and if you grow too many vegetables, you can always give them away to hungry neighbors.

  Checking Out Cool Cukes

  Cucumber varieties usually are categorized two ways: as slicers and picklers. Slicing-cucumber varieties are long, smooth-skinned cucumbers that tend to be larger, a darker shade of green, and have thicker skin with fewer bumps (spines) than pickling varieties, which are short and prickly. Slicing cucumbers are the ones you're probably most familiar with from grocery stores; they're great in salads and other recipes, but they're also super for munching. Of course, you can use pickling varieties the same ways you use slicing varieties, and they're great when eaten fresh, but if you want to make pickles, the pickling varieties have better textures for it.

  The easiest cucumber varieties to grow are the hybrid bush types. These varieties, such as ‘Salad Bush', are good producers, are disease resistant, and produce a small vining plant that can grow in a container. Bush types don't produce as many cucumbers as larger vining varieties, nor do they produce them all summer long. But if you have a small family, a few bush varieties should be plenty.

  To round out the cucumber field in this section, I describe some unusual heirloom (old-fashioned) varieties and some modern, seedless cucumber varieties that produce fruit without pollination. If you plant one of the seedless varieties (these varieties actually have seeds, but the seeds aren't developed), avoid planting any other cucumber varieties in your garden. If a seedless variety gets pollinated by bees, edible but seedy fruits will result. For that reason, gardeners often grow these varieties in greenhouses, which protect the plants from bees. (See the section "Ensuring proper pollination," later in this chapter, for more information.)