The Pleasures of Peas

June 8th, 2008

My greatest pleasure on this unbelievably hot day was picking peas.

It’s my first year ever growing peas. I have never before managed to get myself outside and organized early enough to get them in the ground in time. Usually it’s about June before I do the Three Stooges head-slap and say, “I should have planted peas!”

Pea Wando, Growing in Pairs I planted the peas on March 6. I know this because I have actually started keeping a garden journal, of sorts. I’m not as faithful as I could be and it’s not all that scientific, but I can see that it will come in handy. For example, here it is some 90 plus days after I planted them and they are finally matured to the point where I can pick them. Now, I have four pea varieties, with maturity dates ranging from 60 to 68 days. By any calculation, these peas are LATE.

In the future, I’ll be keeping an eye on this whole maturity date thing so that I won’t make the same mistake I did this year–I used my Texas Tomato Cages as supports for the peas. I figured that they weren’t holding up any tomatoes and that the peas would be finished before the tomatoes needed them, so I pressed them into service.

In the interest of keepin’ it real, I will also show you my un-lovely pea patch:

The Un-Lovely Pea Patch

Yes, those are some Johnny-Jump-Ups nestled in with the peas.

I planted four varieties:

– Pea Burpeeana Early – These peas did not mature all that much earlier. They were also stingy with the actual peas, both on the plant and in the pod, with only about three or four peas per pod. I would not grow these again.

– Pea Sugar Sprint – These are supposed to have tender edible pods. Yes, indeed, the pods are edible, but I’m not so sure about tender. I would look for a different sugar snap next year.

– Pea Wando – This was the most prolofic pea, both in terms of the number of peas on the bush and the number of peas in the pod–at least six and most often eight peas per pod. They also have the habit of growing in pairs, as you can see in the photo. This seems to be what increases the number of peas on the bushes.

– Pea Thomas Laxton – This is an heirloom variety, so it has a place in my heart for that reason. I would say that it performs nearly as well as the Wando peas in terms of peas per pod, but perhaps not quite as abundant on the bush.

Now, here’s the beauty shot:

And guess what? I am the ONLY ONE in our house who likes peas! They are mine. ALL MINE!

And About Social Networking…

I have finally succumbed to the lure of social networking sites. I am currently test driving Twitter, where I am Bumblebee. I am also on Plurk, where I am BumblebeeGarden. I actually prefer Plurk, so far, because the threaded nature of the discussion makes it easier for me to follow. But there is no easy way to find friends there. And Twitter was up and running first, so there are lots of gardeners there who are easy to find. What do you think?

Posted In: Gardening

Tags: peas, Vegetables

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