winter porch update

I thought I'd show you how my force plants are going this winter.  First, the snow peas have become a bit of a disaster.  I grew two climbing varieties and it turns out they want to climb waaay more than I have space for.  As you can see the roi de carouby outgrew its teepee, and the winter winds have not been kind to it.  Also, I grew them in a mix of soil and sand from the big pile of dirt I used to have in the driveway.  I didn't bother to add fertilizer of any kind because I was told that peas make their own nitrogen from the air which they then add to the soil to enrich is.  Turns out they still need more nitrogen than I was giving them, as you can see by how pale and yellow it became.  I have it a drink of Powerfeed and some fertilizer pellets and it shot out dozens of new green shoots, so at least I got that right. 

In the background you can see my punnets of marigolds (no sprouts yet) and some aloe vera plants I was recently given.

On the right side of the porch there's a lot going on.  On the right is the broccoli raab that's been fighting a horrific aphid infestation.  I finally got rid of the aphids but they're still looking thin and unhappy.  But behind them the spring onions are still going well.  Once they're full grown you just snip them at ground level and within a few weeks, with amazing speed, they've grown back!  But I've also got a fresh crop coming up, once they're full sized I'll pull up the old crop and start another round.

The golden-podded peas were on this side but they fared even worse than the roi de carouby and didn't taste nearly as good.  So I pulled them up and planted some seedlings of a snowpea called Oregon that's a "bush type" - hopefully that means they're short and busy enough to stay within the teepee and not get whiplash!  In the background you can see some more roi de carouby in the pot where I grew potatoes last year.  The soil in there is a lot richer, hence the dark green colour, and I'm hoping the larger teepee will hold them in place better.

I've also got my spinach coming along, though I've been surprised at how slowly it gets started.  Maybe I need to shoot it with some Powerfeed to get it going.

Finally, my broccoli isn't on the porch but I wanted to show you the side shoots that grow once you eat the main head.  I've eaten all the heads now, I'm just waiting to eat a few more side shoots before I pull up the broccoli and fill in the bed with more compost and dirt.  The dirt settled quite a lot from the first time we filled it. 

I'm still toying with the idea of growing an avocado tree in that bed, but in the short-term I've decided to grow veggies in there this summer.  There's always time to plant something more permanent in later years.