Growing Your Own Food...

How to grow your own peas

Peas are the first vegetable to be planted in the garden, and therefore the first to be picked.  Peas must be rotated in the garden, to avoid any diseases or pests in the soil.  They can be replanted back to its original position after 5 years.  Peas love a sunny, nutrient rich soil. 

Step-by-step guide to growing peas

Dig over the soil and add plenty of home made compost
Plant dried peas in early spring, when the ground is warm.
Make a flat trench; 12 inches deep and 10 inches wide.  Water the trench

Sew the peas 2 inches apart in 3 rows and cover with soil.
When then peas have reached 2-3 inches in height, use pea sticks, bamboo canes or netting to support the plants.  The plants will throw out curly tendrils, which latch on to the sticks for support.

Peas usually take between 12 to 16 weeks to grow, depending on the variety.  Peas are usually ready to harvest three weeks after they have flowered.  They need to be picked regularly, and always from the bottom.  The tops of the plant can be pinched out when they have reached the top of the support/canes.  This is to encourage new growth further down.  When the plant has finished producing peas, cut down the climbing growth at root level.  Leave the roots in, as they full of nitrogen, which in time will be released back into the soil, ready for your next veg crop.  The stems should be checked for any old pea pods that have been missed.  Old pea pods go brown and dry.  They contain dried mature peas.  Keep these pods, as they are next years’ seeds.  Stems should be roughly chopped and placed into the compost bin.