Growing garden peas – peas are part of the legume family, and are one of the most popular vegetables to be grown by gardeners.
Peas very nutritious and enjoyable to eat, many people love to eat them straight from the plant. There is nothing more delicious then your own fresh peas from your garden as they will taste so much better than any peas that can be bought, either fresh or frozen from the shops.
You’ll find that the taste of home growning peas have a much sweeter fuller flavour.
The pea is a mostly green in colour, though you will find other colours as well such as: yellow and purple – pea pods are either straight or curved and inside you’ll find the green peas. Depending in the variety of pea you are growing there can be between 5 and 12 peas in a pod.
Try and grow your own peas and you can see for yourself!
Prepare the soil
Dig the soil in December so that you can allow it to settle. Dig it deeply to a fork or spade depth and dig in as much organic material as possible and add a handful of scattered into the top soil.
Growing Peas – Where To Grow
Peas will grow on most soils, they do like to have plenty of organic material. You do not have to add nitrogen to the soil before planting as peas can produce their own nitrogen, they do this by extracting nitrogen from the air.
Peas like sun and moisture, but peas can also tolerant partial shade, as they don’t really like the full sun.
Peas can grow to various heights such as 1.8m, 75cm, 60cm, 45cm – so you’ll be able to find a pea that will be suitable to your vegetable garden.
Just remember the taller the variety, the more the peas will cast a shadow over any nearby crops.
When To Sow Peas
To have a continuous supply of peas you should sow a couple of different varieties over a month or two, this way you can extend your growing season from June to September.
There are:- Early and Maincrop varieties. By sowing the different varieties you will be able to eat peas for several months.
First Early
Sow: March to June Harvest: June to September Takes: 12 weeks
Maincrop
Sow: March to June Harvest: July to October Takes: 15 weeks
You can also sow First Early varieties of peas outside in February but you need to put cloches over the area – these peas will then crop in May.
If you want to sow early peas it would be best if you place the cloches over the soil in January this will then warm-up the soil before you sow the peas. You can remove the cloches when the danger of hard frost has passed.
Pea Varieties
- Some Pea Varieties:
- First Early:
- Kelvedon Wonder – a vigorous and reliable cropper.
- Early Onward – a heavy cropper, with excellent flavour and nice and sweet.
- Feltham First – One of the earliest peas. Produces heavy crops.
Maincrop
Onward – An excellent cropper, one of the most popular peas on the market. Great flavour.
Lincoln: A heritage variety. Very tasty flavour, has long curved pods. Plants are nice and compact.
Alderman – A very tall variety (1.8-2m), produces bumper crops with very tasty peas.
Mangetout: You can grow mangetout peas in just the same way as the other peas. Sow From April to June and harvest from June to September. Good varieties are: Delikata, Sweet Horizon or Snow Pea Snow Green.
Petit Pois: Grow as ordinary peas – sow from April to June and harvest from June to September. Good varieties are: Peewee 65, or Waverex.
Sugar Snap: These can be sown from February to June and harvested from June to September. Good varieties to grow are: Oregon Sugar Pod, Sugar Snap or Delikett.
How to sow
Peas can be sown outside with no extra protection from the end of March. If you want earlier pea crops then use a cloche. Simply place the cloche two to four weeks before sowing – to warm up the soil. Then sow the seeds three weeks earlier than normally.
If you don’t have a cloche you can start the seeds off in late February on a windowsill in a tray or you can use peat pots, so then you can plant the pea plants straight into the soil without disturbing the roots.
Remember: always harden off the pea seedlings before planting outside.
Prepare a shallow drill using a trowel or hoe, and sow the seed 2.5cm deep – sow around 2 pea seeds every 5cm. The rows should be around 40cm apart.
Tip: To increase germination soak the pea seeds in water for 4-6 hours before sowing.
When the seeds are sown, cover them and water them. The seedlings should appear in around 14 days.
Care of Your Peas
Peas are very easy to look after, if the weather is very dry then they need to be watered throughout their growing time.
You can also give them a mulch of some organic matter around the plants, which will keep moisture in the ground and also keep the weeds down.
The taller varieties will need some kind of support. The easiest and quickest way to support them is to place twigs or canes near the plants – the tendrils of the peas will twine around the twigs for support.
Other popular methods to support peas is to buy pea and bean net, which you can buy from your local garden centre or some other form of wire netting.
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When to Pick
Garden peas are best picked when slightly immature – as when they mature fully, the peas become hard and they don’t have the natural sweet taste. Also if you harvest them early and more often it also encourages the peas to produce more.
Tip: peas are usually ready around three to four weeks after flowering. I hope that after reading this you’ll start growing peas in your garden.
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