Peas Rotate Your Crops

Today was cold and gloomy, but I did get some planting done on the patio. I planted the cilantro in half of its pot. The packet recommended succession sowing, so while I don't have rows of garden to do that with, I'm doing one half of the pot now, and I'm planning to sow the other half once the first batch gets established. I also planted the sugar peas. I really don't know what to expect from them. That made it hard to know how many seeds to plant in the pot I have designated for them, but looking back over the info on them I am thinking of going from two plants to four. I can always pull them out if they are getting over crowded as long as I do it early enough. (I've learned my lesson on overcrowding after the tomatoes.) Below is the info on the peas from the Baker Creek site:

De Grace New!
A lovely dwarf variety that was grown in America before 1836, and likely much longer ago in Europe. This variety has been extinct to the North American seed trade for more than 20 years, so we are happy to bring back this great pea. The pods are medium sized and sweetly flavored, crisp and tender. The vines produce over a long season and are more frost hardy than many modern varieties.

I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but the chives from Tracy that were on the patio have started growing. Making good time of it too. I didn't look at them for maybe three days and they went from nothing at all to three inches tall. Nothing from the strawberries yet. Also this evening I moved all the planted pots to the edge of the patio so they would start getting real sun.

I can really understand the Dust Bowl after readying my former tomato pot for the peas. The soil was nearly ruined. I was able to see that all the roots from the tomatoes had crowded the edges to the point of a near solid wall and the soil in the middle was kicking up serious dust as I tried to work it up and get some of it out of the pot to be replaced by new potting soil and some moisture control potting mix. I used the same soil in my other pots and they had not deteriorated nearly so extremely, certainly no dust choking me. I have never read anything about tomatoes destroying the soil and I know that I overcrowded them, however after seeing the number they did, when I start planting in the ground (some day) I will think twice before planting tomatoes in the same spot every year.