Well, they're not giant. not yet, anyway. But they could be! Because, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was a great day for WOG. Yesterday, I erected two trellises (trelli?) for the peas to climb.
This was a greater ordeal than it may seem at first. The peas, you see, were under the netting system that is currently shielding the onions, carrots, beets, and cucumbers from the menaces we know as cats. Hail, too, but we haven't really had any yet. What I had to do was to cut the netting at the borders between the peas, the onions, and the beets. This wasn't particularly difficult, except that it had to be done without losing tension in the net - that made it a little more challenging. However, I accomplished that task eventually, and the peas were out in the open air! Then, I had to actually make the trellis.
You may recall that Anne Marie and I had previously acquired some wooden floor trim from ReSource, for the purpose of constructing trellises for various crops. I used three long pieces to make two trellises. This required measuring their approximate lengths by means of comparison with other objects (there was a tape measure available, but I was just too lazy to go and get it. Plus, that wouldn't have been as fun). Then, I sawed each piece in half using a hand saw. Not too difficult. I gathered the six halves into two groups of three - the three tallest in one group, the three shortest in the other. The taller group was for the more spread-out pea plants. I chose the tall group for that purpose so that the trellis stakes would be sure to have enough space to reach all the peas and still meet in the middle. I stuck the stakes into the garden bed and tied them securely together at the top, using pieces of Anne Marie's green garden twine (essentially, one long roll of twistie-tie). I repeated the process with the shorter group, and voilá! Two simple pea trellises. The peas should be happy - they'd been trying to attach themselves to the netting and climb up that, but I wouldn't let them. Now, they can climb all their little pea hearts desire.
You may be wondering how I'll protect the peas from our little friend, Joseph, who so dearly loves to fall on the onions. Well, the bittersweet truth is that Joseph, his brother and sisters, and his mom are all going back to Quebec for the summer - they're leaving within the next couple of weeks. This is bad news because we'll all miss them, but good news for the garden. By the time they get back, most of our crops will be harvested and therefore beyond important harm.
For this reason, I think I will uncover the onions. The netting is simply squashing their leaves, which is definitely not what we want. Also, sadly, some of the red onions have started to bolt. This is not good, because it takes energy away from the bulb, which means the bulb shrinks instead of growing in size. Usually, onions bolt because there has been a sudden drop in temperature. That hasn't really occurred; although we have had several cooler days, they weren't cold enough to induce bolting. Plus, only the red onions are bolting, as far as I saw. So, I did some research, and according to this garden forum, red onions grown from sets are more likely to bolt. Aha! I looked into the subject a little more, and this site said that: in biennial crops, such as onions, "unsettled" spring weather conditions can cause bolting. Well, we've sure had those. The same site also said that red onions seem to be more prone to bolting than are white or brown onions. This also seems to be the case, so far. Finally, the site recommends direct seeding instead of the use of sets, and then covering the seeds with something to keep them insulated against extreme temperatures. If using sets, they should be heat-treated sets; apparently, treating with high temperatures helps suppress the formation of a flower stalk. My Google search also brought up a Texas A&M University resource, which supports the other sites' claims that temperature fluctuations are a primary cause of bolting. It also says - unfortunately - that once onions have bolted, the process cannot be reversed. The best thing to do is eat them. Looks like we'll be having some red onions a bit early! Hopefully they won't have the same mold as the other ones did.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading.
WOG out.
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