When growing peas on your vegetable garden, the intention is never to grow a huge crop, but just enough to give you a wonderful succession of fresh peas to pick during the summer months.
If you are like me, the joy of growing these tiny sweet gems is in picking and eating them when I am working in the vegetable garden - not many ever make it as far as the kitchen! Peas are easy to grow from seed - here is a quick guide on how.
Peas should be sown any time from April onwards when the soil has warmed up sufficiently.
There are varieties that can be sown earlier and also ones that can be sown later in the year for an early autumn harvest.
If you operate a crop rotation system on your vegetable plot, peas should be planted alongside beans and after a potato crop which will have the left the soil well broken up.
Peas require a sunny nutrient rich, moisture retentive site and you will need a well prepared bed before you sow.
Make sure you dig in plenty of well rotted manure and then rake the soil to a fine tithe.
With the back of your rake, make a wide shallow drill in a straight line.
Empty out a few peas into your hand and place them in a grid pattern about four inches apart.
This will give you a double row, enough room for each plant to grow strongly, but close enough together to make the maximum use of space.
Once you have placed the seed, cover with a thin layer of soil and water well.
The plants will take around 15 weeks to mature.
If you want a succession of peas, then plant another row about two weeks after the first.
When your peas begin to grow they will need some support.
Use bamboo canes, trellis or netting to create supports for the plants.
Place the sticks next to the plants to give their tendrils a chance to reach out and grip on to the support.
When harvesting, pick from the bottom of the plant upwards, regular harvesting is essential for truly fresh peas.
Once you have finished harvesting, don't pull the plant up but cut off the growth at the roots and leave them in as they are full of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and will benefit plants you will grow after such as brassicas.
Pea varieties Early Onward is an early variety with a high yield.
Waverex is a reliable petit pois with plenty of small, sweetly flavoured peas.
Douce Provence is a very sweet and succulent variety which is also very versatile - it can be sown as an over wintering variety.
A useful tip if you are sowing early varieties is to sow them in garden planters such as guttering.
The seedlings can then be easily transferred to the ground by sliding them off in a line.