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
