Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Saga of the Peas - Part 2

So, while it is widely known (across several states) that I have the blackest of black thumbs, I've been trying desperately to grow some sugar snap peas in a pot on the back porch. However, it seems to be a losing battle.

First of all, after I had planted the peas, for the next two or three days the seeds kept trying to escape the pot, which I found very annoying. I kept pushing the rogue peas back into the pot, but for awhile I though for sure they were going to continue to make a run for it. It's as if they knew they were doomed and were trying to evade being in my garden. But, I was persistant and eventually they stayed down...at least I don't think any actually escaped. I suppose we'll know if a rogue pea plant shows up somewhere in the back yard. Ha ha!

Finally, they started growing and all seemed good for a bit. As you can see, they were quite lovely at first.



And then...things changed. The weather got crazy hot and even though I watered them often, though obviously not often enough...they started turning brown. They continued to grow, but they got more and more brown...except at the top. I found that very perplexing. I mean, I water the bottom of the plant, so shouldn't the bottom be green and the top brown? And yet as you can see in the picture below, the opposite was true.

At first we figured that there were too many peas in the pot, so I took some out (after this picture was taken). Still the bottom of the plants turn brown, and the tops stay green and continue to grow. I'm telling you these are the strangest peas I've ever seen. I don't hold out much hope of actually getting any peas from this pot, but every time I start to throw in the towel a new bit of green shows up.
I have no idea if I'll get to actually taste any peas from this experiment, but I'm continuing to hold out hope. We shall see. The saga continues...