Front Yard Veggies!

So I have this enormous bed in the front yard, and it's a huge waste of space and water unless it grows something useful. Do you see edibles in here? Would it surprise you if I said there were 23 edible plant varieties in my front yard? Let me explain.

Let's start with the obvious: Trees. In this picture, we have sour orange and loquat. Off-screen are a grapefruit tree and a fig tree.  (You also see a date palm, two tall citrus trees and two pecan shrubs. None of these produce anything useful, so they don't count. As soon as we either buy this place or convince the landlord, they're coming out.)

Next, Herbs: rosemary in the front, dill (mixed with the asparagus fern), oregano (mixed with the Wandering Jew), lemon basil (planted in a row to the right of the screen, between flowers), and thyme (hard to see, but in a tiny row with the flowers, by the white rock.) I also have some very vigorous turmeric (technically a spice, not an herb.)

The less-neon part is dill.

Turmeric

Basil
Veggies! Yep, veggies. Ok, fruits and veggies. Tomatoes (bottom right corner, by the black stand), sorrel (neon green, lemon flavored lettuce, planted with RB Beans), Royal Burgundy Beans (throughout, visible by the rosemary in front), spinach, pole beans (around the pine tree) and lettuce (on the left).

Royal Burgundy Beans and Sorrel

Just look at that fabulous lettuce!

Not visible, but also important: peanuts (hiding in the back), and some shallots,  red and white onions, more basil (Italian and Armenian), tomatillos, and hot peppers which have been planted but are not showing up in the photo yet.

Peanut

Pole beans

Spinach

June 3: I pulled the rest of the pansies out and, with the help of Mrs. A, tilled in some garden soil and fresh compost and planted zucchini, more sorrel, and carrots in the wedge between the pine tree and the date palm. When those spring up, that will bring the count of edibles to 25.

Sugar Snap Peas!

Instead of posting a whole bunch of garden updates, I thought I'd do better to focus on one veggie at a time and follow the progress. I'll update as needed.

For starters, let's look at the one I was most looking forward to when I busted out my seed catalog in December.
Burpee Super Sugar Snap Peas.

January 18: I put 16 Sugar Snap Peas in the fresh soil.

January 22 Seeds have been in the ground for 4 days now, and I have added a trellis ( thinking positive thoughts for future growth!)

January 25: After 7 days, sprouts begin to emerge.
February 17: I'm getting impatient, so I plant 12 more SSP's in the space between the two trellises.

February 20: Seedlings are 33 days old (from day planted).

February 24: SSP's Round Two have sprouted.

March 22 Lots of flowers and pods.

April 1 Mature vines looking good and new seedlings getting going well.

April 8 Look at them go!

April 14 

By the end of April, both Round 1 and Round 2 had slowed down. I pulled them out in mid-May, at a final height of over 6 feet.
These were fun while they lasted, but certainly had a limited run. I will definitely plant them again, and hope that they do better in the cool season. I noticed that I needed about 16-20 plants to collect enough at once to cook for a meal, but most were consumed fresh by myself and my office-mates.

When cooking, I highly recommend stir-frying with olive oil, garlic, course salt, and ginger (powder ok, but tiny slices of fresh ginger are amazing.) This has been a go-to quick side dish for many years, and I have usually used frozen SSP's. However, when using fresh, the crispness is very pronounced. They even stayed crisp through being refrigerated, microwaved, and consumed as leftovers the following day.

Yay for Sugar Snap Peas.