Pea Pods

Young pea pods in May 2011

It's funny, isn't it?  It was more an accident than any great plan that we bought a house with so much land.  We needed a  house with doorways and roofs at least 2m high so that my husband didn't have a permanent headache, and we wanted sufficient land to ensure that we didn't have invasive crops like rapeseed closely surrounding us, but we hadn't really thought too much about what we would do with the land.  As it turns out, we've converted to wanting to grow our own fruit and vegetables, and so one of the joys of living here is we now have both the space and the inclination to develop a vegetable patch. 

While it has been difficult to prepare the ground without powered machinery and keep up with watering the seedlings during one of the driest Aprils and Mays for over 100 years, we were rewarded last night with a most glorious sight. As we moved along the rows of peas and beans checking the roots were still covered after the moles' latest tunneling exploits, we spotted several pea pods had started to develop. At last we feel as if all the hard work has been worth it as, for me peas are the food of gods ...... next to chocolate.

We had been concerned we would not get any peas this year as after transplanting our pea seedlings into the veggie patch last month, we trawled the internet for information on how to successfully grow them. After about 15 minutes we wished we hadn't looked because the general consensus from sites including BBC Gardening and the Royal Horticultural Society stated peas should be grown in cool climates, ideally around 18 C - 20 C. They also required free draining, potassium rich soil and plenty of water. With a sloping south-facing vegetable patch, temperatures regularly in the high 20s, rocky clay and chalk soil, and no rain things did not look good. 

Young pea pods in May 2011

We did buy some pea netting from B&Q but were not happy that it was going to work as we could not get it to stretch out either lengthways or top to bottom.  In the Daily Telegraph we saw an article suggesting that instead of using plastic netting you could use hazel sticks.  As we have coppiced hazel in the woods, we have a ready supply of straight and tall sticks, so we have used these to support our later pea seedlings. It will be interesting to see if the yields are affected by the support method. The hazel sticks certainly look more attractive and  as they are readily available in the right size and quantify from our wood they are both cheaper and more ecolologic than plastic netting.