by Joy Cooke

Created on: August 23, 2009

I have been growing my own peas for about 30 years, originally because I accidentally destroyed my then three year old daughter's sunflower and I remembered from my own childhood how quickly peas grow. It seemed a fair replacement. She took such an interest that it rubbed off on me and eventually I went from just growing a few for fun to really nurturing the plants and helping to feed the family with these wonderfully sweet and natural peas.

It really is very easy to get a crop of peas, takes very little effort and is rather fun. Seeds are available from garden centres and supermarkets, or have a look on Ebay as I recently paid just 1.79 for 200 seeds. I wouldn't recommend any of the pea seeds Poundland are currently stocking however as from previous experience of this little known brand I can tell you the peas will be small and rather woody tasting.

For the last two years I have been using Kelvedon Wonder as they produce lots of good sized pods and can be harvested from as early as June with the same set of plants continuing to crop (albeit more sporadically) through to September. Through trial and error I have worked out how to plant this particular variety in rotation and this year have had fresh peas since the end of June, with more flowering and podding each week.

You can plant your pea seeds directly into well prepared soil, preferably with some manure or compost bin compost dug through a couple of months before sowing. Personally I prefer to start them off in peat pots or seed trays and transplant them into their growing positions once the seedlings are three or four inches high. I find this gives a much more consistent result when the plants really start growing. I do recommend peat pots despite the initial expense of around 3 per 24 pots, you can buy them cheaper but do remember that peas have particularly long and fragile roots so you ideally need to buy peat pots that have a little extra depth than the standard size. Using peat pots means you don't have to handle the roots of the pea seedlings when you are transplanting them; you simply dig a hole and plant the pot, as it's made of peat it will rot down in the damp soil and save your delicate seedlings unnecessary stress.

The main advice I can give you for when you come to choose your pea seeds is to read the packet. It will tell you the recommended sowing times, whether the specific variety needs any special care, the crop you can expect and the final height of the plant. This is more important

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