Tip of the Week — 4/6/09
Posted in Gardening Tips on April 6 2009, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
Planting Peas
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
Successful gardening is about being in sync with nature. Plant your peas on St. Patrick’s Day is the old adage that has been passed down to gardeners in the tri-state area. While this works for some, I have often found the ground to be too soggy and wait until April 1.
We add compost and aged manure into the beds in the fall so that we are all ready to go in the spring. Remember to mulch your peas with straw before the weather gets too hot, or alternatively, shade their roots with lettuce to keep them cool; the cool, moist soil helps to lengthen the harvest.
Fresh peas are as sweet as candy. Harvest the peas before they get too old, otherwise they will become starchy. Look for swelling pods where the peas are just starting to fill up but before the pod is completely full. Hold the plant with one hand and gently pull off the peas. Once the peas mature, it behooves you to harvest daily.
Early in the season is not only the time to grow shelling peas but also snow peas and snap peas with their edible pods. Once you have harvested your peas, you can replant the area with the pole beans that will fill the space and provide you with another delectable harvest.
Remember that all legumes are great team players in the garden; they are experts at capturing atmospheric nitrogen and storing it in their roots. This nitrogen will eventually be released into the soil for other plants to use.
Peas love to grow on trellises. Last year we experimented with several different kinds. For one pea we used pea stakes. In England, they generally coppice birch or hazel to get pliable stems with a good branching structure. I didn’t have that available so I tried the long stems of my butterfly bush (Buddleja) that I cut back every April. The stems were more brittle than I would have liked, but they worked well and provided the support the peas needed.
Another support that I use in the garden is the arbors that decorate the raised beds. The peas climb up the sides of wire cloth wrapping their tendrils around the wire framework and hoisting themselves up to the top. This system always works well as it gives the peas plenty of light, air circulation, and space to grow.
I also tried some wonderfully decorative trellises purchased from a Vermont-based catalog company called Gardener’s Supply Company. They were inexpensive and elegant. My favorites for the peas were the expandable willow trellises. They scampered up the sides only to be replaced mid-season with morning glories (Ipomoea), bitter melons (Momordica), and a host of other summer vines.
Some nice pea varieties to try are ‘Mr. Big’, ‘Maxigolt’, ‘Amish Snap’ (snap pea), ‘Sugar Snap’ (snap pea), ‘Oregon Giant’ (snow pea), and a delightful dwarf cultivar called ‘Tom Thumb’.
This year I am dabbling with some colorful heirloom varieties. ‘Golden Sweet’ has two-toned purple flowers and lemon-yellow pods. It is an edible podded pea that is excellent for stir frying. ‘Blue Podded Shelling’ is another stunner that is used in soups. Both of these heirlooms reach 5-6 feet in height and will need good trellising
Included in the mix is ‘Green Arrow’, a reliable English variety that reaches 2-2.5 feet tall. I am growing this shelling pea, a heavy producer, to add some flavor to my pasta dishes this spring. This is a great variety for hungry homeowners with limited growing space.
