Peas

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The first fresh peas of the summer eaten raw are one of the great rewards of growing your own vegetables. And later in the season, of course you can cook them and dry them. Whatever you do, they are a great source of nourishment. Dwarf peas are a good idea for a small garden.

Soil and climate

Peas are not too fussy as regards soil; light soil will give you an early crop, heavy a late one. Rich loam is best, and any soil can be turned into this by constant composting. As for climate, peas are not a tropical crop and will grow well in cool climates, with plenty of moisture, but too much rain when they are ripening will give them mildew. In hot latitudes they generally have to be grown in the spring or fall, to avoid the very hot part of the summer. As small plants they are frost-hardy, therefore in climates where frosts are not too intense they can be sown in the fall for a quick start in the spring. They will not grow fast and produce flowers and pods, however, until the arrival of spring and warmer weather.

Soil treatment

Peas need deeply cultivated ground. If you are trying to grow them in land that has previously been gardened inorganically you should try to spread seven to ten cwt (350 to 500 kg) of manure or compost on every 100 square yards (84 sq m). Put this on the land the fall before, and possibly 25 lb (11 kg) of slag or ground rock phosphate per 100 square yards (84 sq m) and 10 or 12 lb (4.5 to 5.4 kg) of wood ash. Peas don’t like acidic soil; if the pH is about 6.5, that is all right. If it is below this, lime it; a quarter of a pound (100 g) per square yard is about right.

If your soil is not yet sufficiently fertile and you cannot bring in enough compost or manure from outside, you can still grow excellent peas over trenches taken out the previous year and filled during the winter with kitchen garbage and other material that will readily decompose, such as old newspaper. The organic gardener’s aim, though, should be to raise the whole of his garden to a high level of fertility, so that such piecemeal treatments as this are unnecessary.

Propagation

I make broad drills with the flat of the hoe, about two inches (5 cm) deep, and four inches (10 cm) wide. I then sprinkle the seed in evenly, so there is an inch or two between each seed. I then rake the soil back into the trench from each side and bang down firmly with the back of the rake—or, if the land is puffy and dry, I tread it with my boots. A good soaking of the drill, if the soil is dry, will then start them growing. If you use the deep-bed method, allow three inches (8 cm) between plants all ways. You leave this distance in the deep bed because you are not sowing in rows, of course, but in clumps.

Many people speed up germination by soaking the seed, for as long as forty-eight hours, before they plant it. It should be remembered that all these seeds that are large and edible, like peas and beans, are a standing invitation to rodents and birds, and so the sooner they start to grow, the less time there is for them to be eaten by something. Birds may have to be kept away by thin black threads, or, better still, inverted wire-netting pea-guards. And if you are troubled by mice, dip the seed into kerosene just before planting. The mice don’t like the smell.

Now peas take about four months to grow to maturity: perhaps three-and-a-half if you plant early varieties or if you like your peas very young like I do. Sow them successionally, every two weeks from March to July (sow early in July), and you will get fresh peas all summer.

Care while growing

All but the smallest dwarf peas are better if they have sticks to grow up. Any fine branches with some twigs left on them will do for this. Hazel trimmings make ideal pea sticks. If you need a hedge between your garden and the next one, use hazel. It will give you nuts as well as pea sticks. If you just can’t find pea sticks then use wire netting. Get the coarsest mesh you can (it is cheaper)—say, three feet (90 cm) wide—and make an inverted “V” of it so that a row of peas climbs up each side. This method has the advantage that many of the peas hang down inside the wire where the birds can’t get at them. If the wire is wide-gauge, you will be able to get your hand in to pick the peas; otherwise you can put your hand down through the gap in the top. There are plenty of dwarf pea varieties nowadays, which are supposed to need no support at all. They are worth growing in a small garden, but the yield is low and unless you take precautions slugs will attack the peas near the ground.

Peas don’t like drought, and watering in dry weather always pays in more peas, but remember that soil rich in humus retains water more efficiently.

Pests and diseases

Pea and bean weevil

This creature is the color of soil, falls off the plant and feigns death when you disturb it, and is nocturnal; it hides under clods of soil during the day. No-digging gardeners suffer from it a lot because the compost with which they have to cover their ground gives it splendid cover. It nibbles around the edges of young pea leaves and often eats out the growing centers. Dusting the plants with lime, while the dew is on them, is a deterrent, or you can do the same with soot. If you have neither, spray the young plants and the surrounding ground with quassia spray, or nicotine.

Pea moth

This is a small brown moth that lays eggs on young pea pods. The larvae bore in and eat the peas. If you dig, or cultivate, the soil frequently, but very shallowly, during the winter you can get rid of these pests, for the birds (chiefly robins and starlings) will come along and eat the pupae thereby breaking the moth’s life cycle.

Pea thrips

These tiny browny-black insects make minute holes in the leaves. The plants become yellow and shrivel up. A thorough drenching with soapy water will get rid of them.

Mildew

In very damp weather, pea leaves and pods may go white with mildew, and then rot. Sticking the peas well, so that they can climb high, helps prevent this. Don’t water the foliage of peas in hot muggy weather. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture sometimes works. Otherwise there’s not much you can do about it, but it is not disastrous.

Harvesting

Always use both your hands to pick peas! Put the basket on the ground, and hold the vine with one hand and the pod with the other.

Very young peas taste quite exquisite raw and contain high doses of vitamins A, B, and C. They are very sweet because they contain sugar. A few hours after the peas are picked this sugar turns to starch, which is why store-bought peas taste dull and dried peas completely different. If you pick peas and freeze them immediately, you can preserve this sugar, which is why frozen peas don’t taste too bad.

I like to eat fresh peas all summer and then enjoy dried peas, rather than frozen peas, during the winter, so that I come to the first fresh peas in May or June with a fresh palate and enjoy what is then an exquisite gastronomic experience. The palate jaded by “fresh” peas all year round never has this great sensation.

As fresh peas grow older and tougher on the vine, you have to boil them. When your peas get too tough to be perfect boiled, leave them on the vines and just let them go on getting tougher. Wait until they are completely ripe, as hard as bullets; then pull the vines out and hang them up in the wind but out of the rain.

When the vines are thoroughly dry, thresh the peas out of them; either rub the vines hard between your hands, or bash them over the back of a chair. Put the peas away, thoroughly dry, inside covered containers. When you want some in the winter, soak the dried peas in water for a day or two. Then boil them with salt until they are soft, and eat with boiled bacon. A plate full of peas and bacon, in December, and you are fit to go out and dig for a few hours.

Pea pods make the basis of a good soup. Boil them well and press them through a sieve.