Old Geezer the Gardening Guru: How to grow early peas
Thursday, 20 October 2011 2:34 PM
One of the greatest delights of growing your own veggies is that first taste of new season peas. The flavour confirms the ordinary nature of even the best frozen or tinned peas.
Many of my gardening friends grow early broad beans around now instead of early peas, but that is for next week.
Growing early peas has a couple of advantages: they rarely, if ever, get knobbled by pea moths [maggots in the pods] and they can be cleared in plenty of time to plant another crop such as leeks or cabbages.
There is nothing magical about growing these early crops; the trick is to grow the right varieties. The two standard ones are 'Early Onward' and 'Kelvendon Wonder'. There are others, but these are the two I know best and which have stood the test of time.
Soil preparation is simple enough, dig in a bit of compost if you have it available and rake off any serious stones making sure you get the surface more or less level as you go.
Use a garden line (a length of stout string will suffice), to keep your row straight. Then take out a shallow trench along this line using your hoe.
Keep the blade at right angles to your line, that way you will end up with a trench roughly the width of you hoe and about an inch and a half to two inches deep.
Spread your seed evenly in the trench, it doesn't matter if the odd one or two touch each other, but aim for about an inch apart on average. There is little to be gained being over fussy.
Lightly use the back of your rake to cover the seed. Be careful not to use the tines as if you do you will end up uncovering some of the seeds.
Don't forget to put in a marker at either end of the row (a bit of stick will do). You don't want to forget where your peas are planted!
I also shuffle my feet along about six inches either side of the row to make a temporary path, this will help later.
The object of sowing now is to produce plants with one or two leaves which can stand over the worst of the winter. If they were much larger they would suffer.
When you can see the peas beginning to shoot it is a good idea to use your hoe and draw up a little bank of earth either side of the row. Just over an inch is ideal. This should be close to but not covering the young plants.
Now is also the ideal stage to put in your pea sticks, which will support them in the springtime when they grow and crop. The combination of the little bank and the 'sticks' offers adequate protection in all but the most extreme conditions. Most winters they will be fine.
The other reason I put my pea sticks in at this stage is that it coincides with me pruning my buddliae bushes. With the old flowers removed they make great pea sticks, particularly as the varieties I use for these early sowings (Early Onward and Kelvendon Wonder) only grow about two feet tall.
It also means I haven't got prunings blowing around my garden all winter making the place look untidy. Of course you don't have to use buddliae prunings, in fact almost any stout twigs will do.
Next, I put in a decent stake at either end of the row and run a length of stout string about 18 inches off the ground. Do this either side of the row and it will give added support.
You can also tie the strings together through the sticks. Putting a loop of string every five or six feet helps keep the row neat and tidy.
As a final act of vanity I then go along with my secateurs (garden scissors) and even up the row of sticks. Nothing wrong with making sure your garden looks good!
Enjoy your peas.
All the best, Old Geezer
Next week – growing early broad beans
Old Geezer (Paul Rix) is the author of 'Beyond the Potting Shed' a comprehensive guide to growing your own. Available from all good book shops or Amazon.
Got a question for Old Geezer? Send them on over to editorial@aboutproperty.co.uk.
Want to be the first to know when we break a story? Follow @AboutProperty on Twitter and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.
