Harvest, creating compost, planting beans, and a friend in the grass

There was a lot to do in the garden today.  I got out early and harvested peas, both Oregon Sugar Pod edible pod and Legacy shelling peas.  (Legacy is a sweet and extremely prolific pea.  I purchased my seed from Stokes Seeds.) Here is a photo of the harvest.

Edible pod and shelling peas

The next order of business was creating a full bin for the compostumbler- it takes 4 parts green materials (grass clippings in my case) to one part brown material (sawdust primarily).  I also use spent coffee grounds which I pick up at Starbucks when in McKinleyville.  I also add bone meal, blood meal, greensand, and alfalfa seed meal in small quantities to the mix.  This is what it looks like today.  In three weeks it will be quite different!

Another job that needed doing today was the final planting of bush beans.  I have a fairly short window of opportunity to plant beans here on the northcoast in order to get them ripe before the cool weather of fall makes them stop their growth process, so I planted the new garden bed described in the last blog post full with two types of bush beans (Blue Lake from current year's seed, and Jade from 2008 seed.  I planted the older seed very thickly because I wasn't sure of its vitality at this point.)
I usually lay out the seed in the bed, and individually press each seed into the soil.  I feel it gives each seed a little individual attention and encouragement.  I then label the planted area with the seed type and variety, the seed company and year of the seed, and the date planted.  Here are photos of the process.

Finally, when putting tools away, I noticed a small friend in the grass next to a garden bed-- a garter snake.  I enjoy having them around the area.

The proverbial snake in the grass (but I don't mind)