planting peas

This is my first time planting peas

(besides my botched and albeit very lazy attempt last year.)

This year we have our raised garden beds all ready to go,

so that made it so much easier...

 

 

You plant peas in our area as soon as the ground can be worked.

All you have to do to get them started is take your handy hoe

and make a furrow (i.e. a shallow trench).



 

Follow the instructions on your seed packet,

but most peas like to be planted

1-2 inches apart (to be thinned later)

and 1-2" deep, depending on how heavy your soil is. 

 

I planted ours in raised beds that are next to the garden fence,

so I can hopefully incorporate the fence for support, if needed.

 



 

Aren't they just cute as... peas?

 

 

I'm trying out some new garden products and so far, so good.

12" wooden label stakes and weather-proof non-toxic markers...

Check them out here at the Natural Gardening Catalog.

The larger size wooden label is so much more visible and stays in the soil better.

And the markers, well, time will tell,

but this one has to be better than the black Sharpie I was using that faded into oblivion

and sometimes I had absolutely no idea what variety was planted where...

 

(When you want to save your seeds, it's important to know what's what!) 

 

 

What the heck, I decided to try this stuff, too...

If it will increase germination and yields of delicious peas, it's worth it!

 

It's a shake-in inoculant, and I found it at Territorial Seed Co.

It couldn't be easier -- I just sprinkled it in all of my furrows alongside the peas.

 

And then of course, the last step for now is to gently fold soil back over your peas. 

Voila, you're done planting peas!

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

I'm growing snows, snaps, and shellers:

 

'Blizzard' snow peas

 "Blizzard is still the best intermediate-vined snow pea we have ever tried.

The 3–3-1/2' vines produce an avalanche of sweet thin 3" pods in heavily concentrated sets

that are easy to pick." (Fedco)

 

'Sugar Ann' snap peas

"The earliest snap pea... Very good quality, sweetest of the dwarf snap peas...

Use to start the season."  (Fedco)

 

'Sugarsnap' snap peas

"One of the very best raw treats in the garden, far tastier than the dwarf varieties, although more work to grow. Tall Sugarsnap vines climb 5–7' and need strong stakes. Pods reach superb sweetness only when completely filled. Then they are incomparable." (Fedco)

 

'Petite Pois Precoville'

"These diminutive peas are authentic French petit pois and are ever so sweet. Precoville are ready to use at miniature size, when the slim pods are just 3” to 4” long. Each pod contains 6 or 7 tiny peas, less than half the size of regular shelling peas. Their buttery flavor & tenderness cannot be matched!"  (Kitchen Garden Seeds)

 

and

'Green Arrow' shelling pea

"Long pods with up to 10 peas per pod (more typically 7–8) on vines up to 3'. Seems to withstand miserable and extreme weather better than other varieties.

Easy to pick because pods tend to set in pairs at the top."  (Fedco)

 

 

You can see why we had to put raised beds in!

Our ground is so impossibly wet this time of year,

fortunately the raised beds provide better drainage...

 

Without the raised beds, I'd be mud wrestling with the peas...

and there's no doubt that the mud and the peas would win!