pea Pisum sativum

Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store.

Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before storage.

Lettuce, celery, parsnip, rocket, carrots, leeks, onions and radicchio: allow plants to set seed (tall stems of flowers will eventually appear), pick once the seed heads are brown and crisp sounding. Hang upside down in plastic bags for a week or so, rustle the remaining seeds out of the stems and store.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, chillies and capsicums: scoop out flesh and wash through a sieve. Lay the seeds on a paper towel and place somewhere warm and dry for a week or two before storing. Be careful with chilli seeds as they can sting, so avoid touching your eyes after touching the seeds. Once completely dry, cut the paper towel into small pieces and store seeds on the towel in an envelope.

I never have good results growing beans here (SoCal, not too far from the high desert). Few ever sprout. Those that do never grow above 4-6" high and product 1-3 podseach, if they live long enough. (Note - I use legume inoculant on most, but not all, seeds of each type of bean. I always plant in a set of half soaked and half unsoaked. Because science. I also generaly plant new plants that I haven't yet had success with in a variety of soil types ranging from pure potting soil to unimproved local soil, generally a few seeds at a time at 2-3 week intervals during the months when conditions are favorable to sprouting (if I'm feeling particularly stubborn, I'll plant from february to july and from september to early december).

It was therefore with trepidation that I planted my first english peas (Green Arrow from Botanical Interests) last year. I was delighted when they grew well and produced many delicious pods.

I recall looking at the foliage toward the end of the season and thinking it looked... off. Weather-bitten and pitted. Not pretty. But the plant kept growing and producing. I figured it was the heat getting to it.

This year in addition to Green Arrow I planted Super Sugar Snap (from Renee's Garden) and Wando (from Botanical Interests). Sugar is doing fine (though I planted it late so it's just now flowering). Wando never game up. All the pea plants, while growing happily and producing, look funny. Sugar has white streaks.

I tried yard long beans this year. They came up but did not grow well. The foliage was warped, brittle, and had yellow splotches.

I looked through my seed packets. Of all the legumes I have planted here (peas, bush beans, pole beans, scarlet runner beans, yard long beans, two varieties of edamame, cowpeas, and sweet peas) only two of the packets say "Disease resistant."

Green Arrow and Super Sugar Snap. The two that actually grew.

So uhh... anyone have a favorite disease resistant variety of warm-season legume? The more heat tolerant the better. I want something for fresh eating (I'd be happiest with edamame but I'm not getting my hopes up), but I confess I'd be happy to grow a dry bean or even an ornamental just to HAVE SUCCESSFULLY GROWN A BEAN PLANT. (It is amazingly frustrating to have a garden overflowing with wonderful things like garlic and tomatoes and eggplant and funny-looking lettuces, only to be defeated by something traditionally grown as an exercise by kindergarteners! I don't even like green beans all that much!)

I'm betting on mosaic virus, although my experience diagnosing plant diseases starts end ends with the phrase "Google Image Search."

My raspberry are flowering!

Anyone whose english pea plants yield spherical peas must be a saint. I only get spherical peas if I miss a pod. In the evening I sit out in the garden and eat peas until there is nothing worth eating left on the plant. Then I am done until tomorrow. I will happily do this all pea season.

Strawberry is producing hordes of tiny berries that are being eaten before they get ripe. Also being chewed on: asparagus, chard, kale, melon seedlings, rhubarb, carrots, dill, basil. The squash also mysteriously vanished. I rather suspect earwigs. It is 100 out and we are having a bumper crop of bugs. I found an earwig and a ground beetle in my fridge the other day.

My new cherry tree is getting rather scalded. I need to shade it. If it is not already too late. The nectarine and apple are happy though.

The pomegranate and the blueberry are still not leafed out. I don't think they ever will.

Yay, seeds arrived. Gonna go on a planting binge tomorrow. Especially since tomorrow is tomato day!

Got: Golden purslane Watercress Yard long bean Blackeye pea Charentais melon Cantaloupe (Minnesota Midget) Shelling pea (I ran out)

I've never grown melons before, it will be an adventure. I prepared a little raised bed filled with potting soil far away from the other beds so that they have plenty of room, though I haven't decided between sprawl and trellis. Possibly I will trellis the cantaloupe since they are supposed to be small.

I probably could've planted tomatoes two or three weeks ago the weather has been so hot. (And of course now driving all the way out to descanso gardens for the tomato festival doesn't sound like fun, and I'm tempted to see what they have at the local nursery. But I had such good yields with the kinds that I got at the tomato festival last year. I grew Sunsugar and Jetsetter and they both produced like crazy from the beginning of june to mid-october. Almost half a year of tomato season. I also got decent yields from Copper River and Mister Stripey, but I planted the wrong Mister Stripey somehow and the tomatoes just weren't good. And I don't really like green tomatoes. This year I'd like to grow Sunsugar and Jetsetter again, a paste type, and one random long-season heirloom, whatever looks interesting at the time. Maybe I'll grow Brandywine even though everyone says it never grows well in SoCal.

(Looking at tomato pr0n online is making driving to the festival seem less of a pain, at least...)

At least one edamame plant from the first planting looks like it may actually survive/grow. Second planting, of course, was only a week ago and hasn't come up yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Will this be the year I actually successfully grow beans?

Transplanting the cauliflower in early march looks like it was a good idea (aside from the fact that the horse broke into the garden and ate all but one). The one remaining plant has set properly instead of growing tall and weedy, so I will probably have one decent cauliflower this year and a better idea for what to do next year. Growing brassicas here is a little like trying to get blood from a stone, the climate just isn't suited, but homegrown cauliflower is just so much better than store-bought.