Green gardening: growing peas

Homegrown peas cooked fresh from the garden are so much better than store-bought ones that a place for them should be found in even the smallest garden.  These basic steps will help you learn how to properly grow your own peas.

There are two major pea types: green peas (or English peas) and the edible-pod varieties (called sugar peas or snow peas), which are cooked and eaten with their pods.

Although the yield for the edible-pod varieties is smaller, they are well worth growing for their delicate flavour and crisp texture.

Dig your pea patch as early in the spring as the ground can be worked. In turning the soil, work in generous amounts of organic material — rotted manure, compost, leaf mould, or old hay.

• For dwarf peas, dig a flat-bottomed furrow about five centimetres (two inches) deep, eight to 10 centimetres (three to four inches) wide.
• For tall varieties, which need a trellis for support, make the furrow 25 centimetres (10 inches) wide, set the support in its centre, and plant a row on each side. Tall peas can also be grown up a fence.

If you use a trellis, set it up before planting. Almost any form of support will serve: chicken wire, the plastic mesh available at garden centres, or rows of string drawn between two posts. You can also make a rough trellis from several tall sticks staked close together down the length of the row.

1. Just before sowing the seeds, cover the bottom of the trench with a one-centimetre (half-inch) layer of mature compost or leaf mould and work it into the soil before sowing the seeds.
2. Sow the pea seeds three centimetres (one inch) apart and five centimetres (two inches) deep.
3. To prevent birds from eating the seeds, cover the rows with plastic netting or mesh of string until sprouting occurs.
4. When the seedlings reach eight centimetres (three inches) in height, mound a bit of soil around the stems for support.
5. As plants grow taller, hook their climbing tendrils around the trellis or other support you have provided.

• Peas need a lot of moisture; mulch the rows to maintain moisture and hold down weeds.
• Check the soil occasionally, and water when necessary. Because peas are especially vulnerable to fungal disease, water the plants at soil level so that the leaves will not get wet.
• When plants are 15 to 20 centimetres (six to eight inches) tall, spread a band of compost or a balanced organic fertilizer blend on both sides of each row.

Green peas should be picked when the pods are young and well filled, but the peas inside are not yet hard. Edible-pod, or snow peas are ready when the pods are just beginning to swell. If you wait until the pea shapes showing through the pod are noticeably round, the pods may be too tough to eat. (If you let snow peas remain on the vine too long, shell and cook as you would green peas.)

Sugar-snap peas are like edible pod peas but are allowed to fill out. Pods snap like green beans, and pod and peas are eaten together. Pods will develop "strings" down their spines if overmature, but can still be shelled to cook the peas.

Harvest with care, holding the vine with one hand while you pick off the pod with the other; otherwise you may remove part of the plant along with the pod.