Screwed up already

I like to plan. When I decided to try square foot gardening, I planned and planned and planned. I planned a big garden, then reduced the size. I planned to plant everything because with square foot gardening, there would be room, then decided to take it slower. Once I decided on what to grow and how much, I planned how the crops would be rotated. I had it all planned out.

Yesterday the time was right for planting peas. I calculated how many pea seeds I would need and counted out how many I had. First glitch: The number of pea seeds for the snow peas was not enough for the four squares I had planned. No problem, though - peas are peas (for planting purposes, at least). So I changed plans and decided on two squares of snow peas, four squares of English peas, and six squares of snap peas. I would use the same number of squares I originally planned for peas, but in slightly different amounts of each type.

Peas are not peas for growing purposes, though. The variety of English peas I chose will grow only two feet tall and should not need staking. The snow peas, however, will grow five feet tall and the snap peas four feet tall. So the squares for snow peas and snap peas should abut each other to make the most efficient use of the supports.

Finally, planning revised, I approached the first bed and brushed away the leaves and measured out the four squares for the English peas. I carefully poked holes every two inches, in rows two inches apart.

I dropped the seeds into the holes and poked them to a depth of one inch.

I covered the squares with homemade compost.

And then, just as I was tamping down the soil with my hands, I realized I had planted the wrong bed.

Because of the shed, of the beds we had built and filled, I had reserved the one that would get the most sun for tomatoes. And that was the bed I had just planted the English peas in. Well, too bad. I mentally shifted the beds, keeping the ones for peas next to each other and the tomato bed at the other end of the row. In spite of all my planning, I can be flexible.

The supports will be from previously utilized PVC pipe and either chicken wire or plastic coated hardware cloth, both of which are in plentiful supply in the shed. Now if it would only rain.

Meanwhile, the daffodils and the forsythia have popped.

All the daffodils decided to bloom at one time instead of their usual staggered sequence. Ditto the forsythia - my bushes usually bloom later than the neighbor's, but not this year.

Weird, weird weather.