Plant a bushel of peas
There are lots of delightful types of peas. Choose disease-resistant varieties and you won’t need to do much more than plant them, water them regularly, and harvest them. Start your peas in cool, spring temperatures, before the hot weather arrives. For a fall crop, sow pea seeds in late summer, giving them some shade and extra water until the mercury drops again. Sow the peas in wide rows, covering them in spring with an inch of soil and planting two inches deep for a fall crop. They don’t usually need fertilizer, but they do need a deep, weekly watering if rain is scarce.
For best results, grow your peas on a trellis or other support, or choose a dwarf variety with short vines that don’t need staking. Read your seed packet to know when to harvest, and pick often so the plants will keep producing. Fresh peas have the best taste, but you can freeze or dry them to use later.
Grow spicy peppers for fiery flavor
They say variety is the spice of life—well, so are jalapeños, habaneros, and other spicy peppers. Start your pepper seeds indoors in the soil discs that come in Garden Republic’s Pepper Seed Starter Kit, and when they sprout, move the seedlings into the fabric grow bags. Use the box as a tray to hold them. When the peppers are a couple of inches tall, and the danger of frost in your area has passed, transplant them into a garden spot that gets full sun. Then use the scissors from the kit to harvest the peppers when they’re the size you want.
Spicy peppers don’t just add heat and flavor to your foods. They also contain capsaicin, which is thought to act as an antioxidant to help fight infection and prevent some types of heart disease. By the way, this is what a taste for spicy food says about your personality.
Choose carrots for crunch
Fresh carrots are packed with nutrients, and these low-calorie veggies are great to tuck into kids’ lunches, slice for salads, or munch when you’re on a diet. Then again, you might want to forget the diet and make this carrot cake that’s as good as grandma’s!
Because carrots seeds are tiny, it’s best to sow them directly into the garden. They need loamy, sandy soil that has been loosened to about one foot deep. Remove any rocks, sticks, and other debris, and plant the seeds while the weather is cool. Grow your carrots in a raised bed if your soil has a lot of rocks or clay. To space the seeds evenly, distribute them with a special tool like an adjustable seed dispenser, or put down strips of carrot seed tape in straight rows in your garden. Keep the soil moist and be patient. The seeds may take two or three weeks to sprout, so you might want to plant some fast-growing radishes to mark the carrot rows. Pull the carrots while they’re still on the small side for the best flavor and texture.
