PLANTING PEAS

Spring is actually here.  I celebrated that fact by planting the season’s first peas.  Peas are one of the best crops to eat fresh
from the garden.  If you are a home vegetable gardener and you
haven’t experienced the taste and sweetness of garden fresh peas
do yourself a favor and give them a try.  Growing peas is relatively
simple.  Plant as early as you can in the Spring.  I make a trench
about 3 inches deep and about the width of a hoe.  I first apply
a layer of bone meal to feed the peas.  Then I plant the peas.  I
use an entire packet (375 seeds in a 15 foot long row.  I don’t
get anal about the placement of the peas.  I just try to space them
about 1″ apart.  Next, I water the trench enough to wet all of the
peas.  The final step before covering the seeds is to sprinkle a
granular inoculant over the seeds.  This provides active live
bacteria which improves yield.  I cover the soil, give the trench
another drenching of water and wait patiently for the seedlings to
emerge.

As you can see from the picture, I have driven some metal fence posts into the ground.  When the seedlings
start to grow I will hang “pea trellis” from the fence posts to support the pea vines.  The variety that I planted
is called CASELOAD and was purchased from Johnny’s Selected seeds.  The peas were planted on March
18.  In the twenty years that I have been growing vegetables this is the earliest that I’ve ever started peas.
I will plant a second crop in about two weeks.  Put some seeds in the ground my friends.
All the best,
Greg

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