Growing peas
Friday, June 27th, 2008
I like to think the ‘Vegmonkey and the Mrs.’ is a blog about progress, i.e not just successes, but learning too, and the failures that come with that.
We didn’t grow any peas last year due to having broad beans in the space. No beans this year, so the peas got the go-ahead.
I read that growing in guttering was the best way, as the peas just slide out of the guttering and into the ground. I didn’t however find this the case. The tangle of roots inside the guttering, turned into a mushy mess and i ended up taking out each of the plants individually. I’m sure there are better ways.
We’ve been eating them happily for the last month, with pretty much every other meal - i can’t recommend growing them more. Last week we had a few tough ones, but i think i’ve put that down to a mistake made early on…..
Being all enthusiastic early in the year, i planted all the Feltham First Early peas and Mange Tout out into the guttering and put it all into the cold frame. Problem was, i didn’t label them. Needles to say, 2 months later, we have lots of great peas to plant out, but no idea what was what. They all went in together, and just recently we have been eating the mange tout and the Feltham first all in one! Not a problem really though as i can’t be arsed to shell them anyway.
Anyway, i digress. The wind that whips through our little plot of land gave the peas a proper battering last week, partly because i’d used some aesthetically pleasing (but pretty useless) sticks, but also because i didn’t push them in deep enough. Next year, their will be a major structure where the peas shall go, and i’ll make sure i divide them better.
I planted a few ’seeds’ out in a pot, which are almost ready to go into the bed as small plants now, to fill the gap in the pic above, caused by the plants i had to take out due to wind damage. Apparently they will fail as the weather warms up, but we’ll see. I also plan to plant some more plants out early September, to see if we can get a late Summer crop…
