09:47 - 22 February 2010
Imagine picking your own homegrown pods of garden peas; then popping the pods and tipping the sweet little peas straight into your mouth. There probably isn’t a better tasting home grown vegetable than fresh peas straight from the pods. Even though you may end up eating them all before they ever reach the kitchen, garden peas are a great and very easy crop to grow. They also make good plants for children to try, so get them involved too.
Peas are hardy which means they are one of the crops that can actually be sown in situ now into the garden soil, (you can also sow them in the autumn). The trouble is they are so tasty that often garden mice and other creatures may eat them even before they come up. For the best results it’s much better to get them started in a cool greenhouse.
Simply sow the seeds into half drainpipes filled with a quality seed compost. Cover over with more compost and keep slightly moist. Do not over water and make sure you protect them from mice, by covering over with fine gauge chicken wire. The slender shoots will soon be pushing their way through the compost and towards the light. The great thing about peas (and also mange tout and broad beans, but NOT sweet pea flowers) is that you can eat the shoots. It’s a great idea to pinch out the growing tip so that the plants bush out, and you can eat this tip raw, add to salads or even to stir fries. Some gardeners grow pea shoots as an early spring vegetable and harvest the shoots completely. You can also eat pea tendrils.
The roots of your plants will quickly fill your half drainpipes and so this is a signal to plant them outside. Simply make a shallow trench in the garden a similar length to the drainpipe and then push the compost and peas into this, covering over with more seed compost to ensure good contact between the pea plant compost and the garden soil. Cover over with cloches to protect the developing plants and when they reach about 15cm tall, remove the cloches and provide hazel sticks as pea sticks that your plants can use for support. Continue to harvest a few leaves and shoots as required. The plants need to be uncovered for pollinating insects to reach them so be sure not to cover them in fleece or fine netting when they are in flower. Harvest the pea pods when they are swollen with fat little peas but before they go woody, Mange tout can be harvested when they are 2-3cm long. If you make a sowing every fortnight from February you will extend the cropping season so that you can pick fresh peas for several weeks throughout the summer.
