Peas
Fresh peas are wonderful and a great treat fro children to interest them in gardening and growing their own.
First grown in the Middle East near turkey and the Caspian Sea they were, and still are, a highly versatile crop being useful as a fresh pea or a dried pea. Crops have been grown throughout the ages for both humans and animals. Animals enjoy the crop residue and today it makes a good garden mulch.
It is a nitrogen fixing plant like all in the Legume family meaning it allows parasitic bacteria to grow nodules on the roots. In return the bacteria supply nitrogen to the pea plant.
In October prepare the ground in the vegetable patch ready for sowing peas. Make a wide trench about 5 cm and deep and 10 cm wide then place the peas in a double row in the shallow trench and cover. Plant successive rows at times over the next 6 weeks. Depending upon variety they will take between 45 days and 90 days to produce a nice crop.
'W F Massey" is a dwarf variety and will produce a crop in 45 days. Others like green feast will take longer.
In good ground with compost peas need no extra fertiliser. Remember they produce their own nitrogen.
As peas are a low climbing plant with tendrils they need a simple structure to keep them off the ground. Using 1 metre long bamboo stakes in a cris cross pattern to hold them up is sufficient.
Once the crop has been harvested you can either dig in the stems and leaves or put them in the compost. Do not throw away as the roots will have nitrogen fixing nodules.
First grown in the Middle East near turkey and the Caspian Sea they were, and still are, a highly versatile crop being useful as a fresh pea or a dried pea. Crops have been grown throughout the ages for both humans and animals. Animals enjoy the crop residue and today it makes a good garden mulch.
It is a nitrogen fixing plant like all in the Legume family meaning it allows parasitic bacteria to grow nodules on the roots. In return the bacteria supply nitrogen to the pea plant.
In October prepare the ground in the vegetable patch ready for sowing peas. Make a wide trench about 5 cm and deep and 10 cm wide then place the peas in a double row in the shallow trench and cover. Plant successive rows at times over the next 6 weeks. Depending upon variety they will take between 45 days and 90 days to produce a nice crop.
'W F Massey" is a dwarf variety and will produce a crop in 45 days. Others like green feast will take longer.
In good ground with compost peas need no extra fertiliser. Remember they produce their own nitrogen.
As peas are a low climbing plant with tendrils they need a simple structure to keep them off the ground. Using 1 metre long bamboo stakes in a cris cross pattern to hold them up is sufficient.
Once the crop has been harvested you can either dig in the stems and leaves or put them in the compost. Do not throw away as the roots will have nitrogen fixing nodules.