My Tiny PlotSuccessional Peas
It’s time to start my Peas. I sowed these a few weeks ago in the greenhouse and they’ve grown beautifully. They are Green Arrow and should grow into sturdy bushes about 60cm (23 inches) high. I cut some pea sticks from a tree in the front garden for them to grow up.
I used to grow Peas in lengths of guttering which works fine for small areas. But I found that I increasingly wanted to grow more and more Peas and the lengths of guttering simply didn’t hold enough Peas for me.
So in the last few years I have started a few Peas off under cover (either a coldframe, under fleece or this year in the greenhouse) and then I have dug a wide trench and put the sprouted Peas at one end. I then sowed the rest of the trench with seed successionally over the next few weeks. This should result in a nice wide area for Peas that produce pods gradually from one end. That’s the theory anyway.
I planted these out yesterday and of course last night we had a fairly hard frost. The Peas were fine! They really are hardy little plant.
Wonderful to get the peas started!
Have a beautiful day!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
Peas, beans and sweet peas are on our list to get started this weekend. I will be using root trainers and then planting out a set every 2 weeks in one of our beds as we’ll still have frost for a couple of months yet I think
Green Arrow is a fine pea but there are some other fine peas developed at Oregon State University which are enation mosaic virus resistant and your peas will keep producing when the weather turns warm. If you’ll tell me where to mail I’d like to send you some selections which are also good for fall cropping. Pleasure to follow progress on your lovely new garden.
Hi Rose, Thanks. Can you suggest some varieties here so that others can take a look too? I’m happy to buy some from your nursery. It looks great.
I found these: Oregon Trail, Oregon Pioneer, Oregon Sugarpod II, Oregon Giant and the new snap pea Cascadia.
Can you add any more?
I have never planted peas before. I have them started and the shoots are coming up quickly in our downstairs bathroom, under grow lights. I live in Vinton, VA—is it ok to go ahead and put them outside after they get a little height on them? I’m sure we will have some frost again in the next few weeks, or even light dustings of snow. I didn’t know how hardy they actually were.
Thanks for help/advice :0)
Peas are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables. Originally the tender tops of the plants were cooked along with the pea pods. Today we have shelling, snap, snow and sugar pod peas. They are a rather brief, cool season vegetable that are well worth the easy effort to enjoy them fresh from the garden.
I have great success in Southern Oregon with Cascadia peas. I can direct seed them in Feb. and March, which I did. Last year I only put in a double row in a cinder block bed that was 2 x8, and I was giving them away to neighbors there were so many. They are great in the pod, and later shelled. I planted another bed this year, 2 weeks later. Of course, they are still babies.
My fall crop got eaten by something (birds?) before the seeds even had a chance to sprout.