Pea Envy

As row houses in the District go, we're fortunate to have a very sunny backyard. We have very limited shade from neighboring buildings, and our lot is on one of the more elevated portions of our street. We'll be able to supply our table with much of the produce we'll eat this summer because of these advantages. Or, to put it another way, we can just stick stuff in the dirt rather than have to make use of unconventional gardening means -- like vertical containers or rooftop gardening. (Gayla Trail's website is full of tricks for that stuff)

During walks around Columbia Heights, it's been cool to see how people have put much less ideal spaces to good gardening use. I've stumbled upon small boxes of Russian kale on a tiny side yard, tomato plants growing on no more than 10 square feet, and front-yard squash. The other day, we saw a three-by-three (maybe) area next to someone's front stoop on 11th st. that had peas growing a yard high on a trellis that looked like was strung by a dyslexic spider. Christine immediately felt disappointed in our own peas, which were almost half the size of these. I ribbed her for experiencing pea envy.

Our peas, actually, are kicking ass. They are snap peas, so they're not supposed to be gargantuan. They are solid little bastards at stem level. And, most importantly, they have pea pods!

The peas are occupying about a 4'x2' area of the lower garden box, so they could fit practically anywhere that can be trellised. They will be all done with early enough in the season to make way for fennel later in this same space.