Peas, peas and more peas are the stars of this vegetable garden report. Lettuce was the star last week, but, alas, the lettuce turned bitter in the summer sun. Lettuce has a very short garden life in an Oklahoma spring.
That’s because Oklahoma springs don’t often linger. Just as I wrote this sentence, the forecast changed. Welcome to a prairie climate!
I harvested purple kale a couple of mornings ago and dislodged some cabbage worms before rinsing and putting it up in a bag to be eaten later this week as kale chips or sauteed with a lovely fried or poached egg on top. Kale is also good in soups, or you can massage it with dressing and make a good salad. If I’d wanted to keep it longer in the garden, I should have covered it with row covers. I discuss this a lot in my book, The 20-30 Something Garden Guide.
I also harvested the mache. Remind me next year, not to grow mache. It is delicious, but it also takes up a ton of room in the garden, and it is hard to harvest and wash. I have it in a bag for a salad tonight.
‘Avalanche’ snow peas are really good and prolific. I got the seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. 
‘Avalanche’ snow peas are bred for increased tendrils to eat. I like that they hold onto the pea trellis really well in the Oklahoma wind.
We’ve been eating ‘Avalanche’ snow peas for a week and sugar snap peas too. After looking up the snow peas on Johnny’s Selected Seeds, I noticed that this variety is also known for its tendrils. Tendrils are fancy edibles, but what I like about them is they help pea shoots hang onto the trellis. My favorite pea trellises are from Gardener’s Supply. The red ones match my fountain, and I can see the green peas on them. They are not cheap, but last for years, especially if you take them indoors in winter. After the peas are finished, I’ll grow cucumbers on them. Still trying to find the name of the sugar snap peas. I’ll keep looking. I’m impressed that the snow peas don’t have strings. I’ve been eating them raw off of the vine.
I’m also growing peppers in 20-gallon Smart Pots
In one of the cold frames are ‘Beaujolais’ sweet peas from Botanical Interests. I’ve been growing sweet peas for a while, and these have performed really well here this year. I anxiously await the blooms. Don’t eat sweetpeas. They are poisonous.
Beautiful tomato flowers. 
‘Lucid Gem’ tomato. Look at all those blooms! More tomatoes to come.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions from new gardeners about pinholes in their eggplant and tomato leaves. Flea beetles are a problem this time of year. I pinch off the bottom leaves from the eggplants and try not to worry. I also rotate my crops from year-to-year. Once the weather gets warmer, I make sure the plants get plenty of water (mostly through soaker or drip irrigation.) They usually grow out of the problem. Here is an OSU Extension sheet on growing tomatoes in the home garden for more information.
As for caterpillars, one of the best friends you can have in the vegetable garden is the red paper wasp. The females hunt almost endlessly for caterpillars to feed their brood. Don’t kill all the wasps in your landscape. I remove nests from doorways and other places we must frequent, but otherwise, I leave them alone. While wasps can be pissy around their nests and brood, they are actually great predators and pollinators. As for caterpillars that I want like Swallowtails, I have dill and bronze fennel planted in various spots around the larger garden to thwart some of the wasps. I do the same with milkweed for Monarch butterflies. I love butterflies.
Other great predators are birds. Without insects, we have no birds. I try to remember this when I see holes in plant leaves. I know, it’s hard, but the longer I garden this way, the fewer insect and disease problems I have.
The tomatoes are growing like gangbusters in the containers. I used both 20-gallon Smart Pots
Apparently, a lot of you decided to become gardeners this year. Good for you! If you’d like more gardening information, check out my Instagram or my gardening podcast with Carol Michel. We’re in our second year of podcasting and have a new episode published today on David Austin roses, rosehips, and more garden updates. Last week was on gardening with children. We drop a new episode each week. If you have ideas for a future episode, please let us know. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
In other news, we are having the roof and gutters replaced on our log home. Our previous roof was very old. It was definitely time. We also replaced some rotten logs, and now the house is ready to be stained. We’ll be just spiffy for fall!
That’s my vegetable garden update this week. I hope things are growing well in your neck of the woods. Take care.
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I can imagine how short your spring vegetable season is, because even here in Ohio, it doesn’t last long. I purposely plant spinach that advertises itself as slow to bolt, but I must not have this year because it was barely out of the ground and heading for the sky!
Gosh, I hoped it lasted longer in Ohio. You would think it would, but being part of the middle of the country, I suppose not. ~~Dee
Your peas are way ahead of mine in Indiana. Mine are just now flowering. It seems they thought the cold spring meant “let’s just sit here until it warms up.”
And, now, just like that, you’re harvesting, and mine are gone. Gardens are so fluid.~~Dee
Yum! It all looks delicious and nutritious! We went from early spring to summer almost overnight here in the Madison area, too. Things are growing so fast! Good luck with your new roof and gutters!
Hey Beth! We are almost there. They put up most of the gutters on Friday, and will finish on Monday. At least we got home repairs done this year. ~~Dee