Update on the Peas

It's only been a few days, but the peas are all up and growing with large leaves fully spread out and catching the sun.  Things do have a way of happening very rapidly in tropical sunshine if conditions are favorable.  I'm looking forward to harvesting them and using them in the kitchen, lately I've been eating a lot of pinto beans and I could use a change of pace.  I'm about halfway through a 25 pound sack of the pintos.

I've had to do a lot of watering.  It used to be the case that there was no need to water the garden much at this time of year, because it rained almost every day.  But things seem to be different now, our rains come in spells, interspersed with dry periods that last for a week or more.

The rains cool my house in the evenings, if the air isn't too smoky to open the windows.  I used to leave the windows open all the time during the rainy season, but that's no longer possible.  It makes life very unpleasant at times when you have no air conditioning in your house and you can't open the windows.  I survive with cold showers.

The molokhia is growing very well as usual.  Planting the right varieties of veggies is an essential part of subtropical gardening. Right now many of my older plants like peppers are struggling in the heat, but the Vigna and the molokhia are growing very rapidly with no problems.  That shows the wisdom of proper varietal selection for the current conditions.  I pick a colander of molokhia leaves every few days from just two plants in 34 cm containers.  I like them best in soup.

My hope is that I won't have to completely rework the planting beds once I get them all rehabilitated and shielded from root invasion with landscaping cloth.  It only takes a morning or two of adding compost and mixing with the fork to amend a bed for a new crop.  The trick is to get out there and do it, lately I've not been feeling up to it...might have had a little heat exhaustion in addition to the usual bronchitis I get from the smoke.  I do work outside, but I run out of steam very quickly lately.

This time of year...what gets done, gets done.