Cow Manure, Peas, and Spinach

Last week, I spread 800 pounds (twenty 40-pound bags) of cow manure in my new 20' by 20' garden. Bill tilled it in for me. So I was ready to begin planting this weekend.

Yesterday I planted a row of Garden Peas and a row of Spinach, both from Rohrer Seeds in Pennsylvania. The peas are Early Frosty (64 day maturity, 24 inch height). The catalog description reads:

64 days (24 in.). Our most popular home garden variety produces
uniform, dark green blunt pods tightly filled with delicious peas. Wilt resistant variety with excellent yields, vigor and freezing quality.

I hadn't intended to plant spinach. But I had space, and lots of leftover seeds from Ann and Bill from last year. And I noticed they could be planted early (March 15-August 15) and matured quickly (48 days) so they'd be out of the way in time for my summer planting. The variety is Bloomsdale. The description reads:

Savoy-leaved. The first early, vigorous variety. Desirable for local gardens. Plants erect in growth, hardy and attractive. Leaves large, crumpled, somewhat blistered, dark glossy green.

With the peas, I'm doing a sort of experiment. Half of the seeds I planted were soaked overnight (actually closer to 21 hours by the time they got planted). One quarter were soaked for several hours (about 4). And the remaining quarter were moistened at the last moment so the inoculant would stick. I planted half the overnight seeds, then the several hours seeds, then the dry seeds, followed last by the remaining overnight seeds. We'll see if this makes a difference in the germination of the seeds.

The sprinkler I bought that's supposed to water a 30' by 30' square area barely reached 10' by 10'. I need to reevaluate my watering plans. Happily it rained quite a bit last night, and is supposed to continue raining for several days, so I didn't have to worry about an initial watering. Just so it gets warm quickly enough that the seeds don't rot before they germinate....

The forecasted weather for the next few days beginning with today is 49/38, 52/36, 52/38, 58/43, 59/36.