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Planting Peas

March 12th, 2012

Traditionally, St Patrick’s Day is the time to plant peas and potatoes here in NE Ohio. I was getting ready to plant peas yesterday and realized that I have a ton of seed for sugar snap peas, but only two small packets of shelling peas.

I’ll definitely need more shelling peas, so an order needs to be placed this week. I’ve grown Wando & Alaska previously, this year I planted a pack of Sabre easy-to-work, short vines bear double sets of well-filled pods each with 10 to 12 peas that shell out easily. Delicious tender peas with great taste. Extremely disease-resistant and productive plants (source Renee’s Garden Seeds)

I had a lot of sugar pod peas and planted:
Mammoth Melting snap pea pods are used like snow pea pods. The thick, stringless, 4″-5″ flat edible pods encase creamy-white peas. A high-yielding, early, uniform, and wilt resistant variety. The pods are excellent for stir-fries, steaming, freezing, or eating fresh. (source: Grow Organic)

Oregon Giant Huge yields of sweet, exceptionally large, five inch crispy snow pea pods on vigorous, disease resistant short vines. (source Renee’s Garden Seeds)

Super Sugar Snap Tall vigorous vines (resistant to powdery mildew and tolerant to other pea virus) are laden with long crisp sweet pods that mature in 60 days (source Renee’s Garden Seeds)

I planted all the varieties listed above, but I’ll definitely need to plant more shelling peas so I can stock my freezer for the coming winter. Even though peas take up lots of garden space and you have to shell so many pods to get any measurable amount of peas – to me they’re worth every square inch of garden space!

Do you have any great varieties of peas to recommend?

25 Comments to “Planting Peas”
  1. canned Quilter on March 12, 2012 at 5:48 am

    There is nothing sweeter than shelling peas fresh from the garden. My kids would raid the garden and walk around with their pockets stuffed full of pods for snacks.

    Reply to canned Quilter's comment

  2. Joan on March 12, 2012 at 7:22 am

    Shelling peas are definitely the best, but because of limited time, I’ve resorted almost exclusively to snap peas for freezing. The few bags of shelled peas that we freeze are a prize and we use them sparingly and with great appreciation!

    Reply to Joan's comment

  3. Melissa on March 12, 2012 at 7:26 am

    I love fresh peas straight from the garden. However I don’t know if they are meant to be this year. Jan 20 is our pea planting date down here, I planted a bunch but have had dismal success. I don’t think they like how it’s gotten so hot so fast. last year they were producing flowers by now! But they are only about 2 feet tall at the moment!

    Reply to Melissa's comment

  4. Allison on March 12, 2012 at 8:11 am

    I am trying to Alaska variety this year :)

    Reply to Allison's comment

  5. Andrea Duke on March 12, 2012 at 8:22 am

    I have a quart jar in the freezer 1/2 full of peas left. I think they are going to be part of some chicken pot pie :)

    I planted Little Marvel and they should be poking through the ground anyday now. I have another area I would like to plant some peas, but I’m not sure what variety yet.

    I have to really protect them from deer here!!

    Reply to Andrea Duke's comment

  6. Corrie on March 12, 2012 at 8:32 am

    For shelling, I love ‘Dakota’. I was blown away by how productive they were last year. They came in at once, which worked well for me for freezing them.

    Reply to Corrie's comment

    • Susy on March 12, 2012 at 8:39 am

      Thanks for the recommendation – I’ll look into getting some of these.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Green Bean on March 12, 2012 at 9:55 am

    I planted my peas yesterday! I often do Oregon Giant but went with Green Arrow this year.

    Reply to Green Bean's comment

    • Susy on March 12, 2012 at 10:40 am

      I’ve always had great luck with Green Arrow – you’ll love them.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Misti on March 12, 2012 at 10:33 am

    We’re growing Sugar Snap Peas and well, another bushing variety called Sugar Daddy. So far they are blooming away but haven’t had a pea yet.

    I can’t wait for black eyed peas!

    Reply to Misti's comment

  9. Estelle on March 12, 2012 at 10:54 am

    I planted Sabre in containers yesterday, not for the peas but for the shoots that I plan on sauteing, yum!

    Reply to Estelle's comment

    • Susy on March 12, 2012 at 10:58 am

      I should grow more peas for shoots – sometimes I get them in my greens mix from the farmer’s market.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  10. daisy on March 12, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    We’ve got peas comin’ up now. I can’t wait to taste them as it’s the first time we’ve grown them ourselves. Happy planting!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  11. Josie on March 12, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    I just planted my peas last weekend, but I am a bit south in zone 7a. I have only planted shelling peas this year (which is my first year for my garden) I have decided to try “British wonder” from seedsavers, “arrow” from high mowing seeds. I am going to be interested to see how many peas I get and how far through the year they go. For me the tricky part is guessing how much to try and grow with a family of five, I am planning to eat the peas fresh and save any extra by freezing. Sugar snap peas are not as popular in my house, so I decided to wait on those and really work on the things that are the anchors of produce I am buying right now on a regular basis. I probably went a little over board with the tomatoes…but they all look so wonderful.

    Reply to Josie's comment

    • KimH on March 12, 2012 at 5:19 pm

      Regarding the tomatoes, Welcome to our world!! ;)

      Reply to KimH's comment

      • Josie on March 15, 2012 at 9:16 pm

        Thank you! I have been waiting a long time to stay in one place long enough to garden (military) I am really looking forward to the roots we are planting!
        PS the tomatos are looking good so far in their little trays!

        to Josie's comment

  12. Manuela@A Cultivated Nest on March 12, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    I planted peas a few weeks ago and they’re already up. It’s been so unseasonably warm lately that I’m hoping it’s not too warm for them

    Reply to Manuela@A Cultivated Nest's comment

  13. Peaceful Valley/GrowOrganic.com on March 12, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    We’re proud to have our Mammoth Melting Peas in your garden!

    Reply to Peaceful Valley/GrowOrganic.com's comment

  14. Grant on March 12, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    Blue Podded Pole!!!

    Reply to Grant's comment

  15. KimH on March 12, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    I never have been an English pea fan.. sad but true.. Perhaps if I’d had some out of the garden, I might enjoy them.

    Sugar snaps on the other hand are a completely different story.. I would grow loads of them and still we rarely had any make it into the house. Both my girls & I would eat them off the vine as a snack as we were working in the garden.. Pick one, eat one, pick two, eat two. ;)

    Reply to KimH's comment

  16. Margaret on March 12, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    Hi Susy,
    i was wondering if you liked the Golden Sweet Snow Peas from Baker Creek? Your photo of the flowers is wonderful. The image has stuck in my minds eye and has been tempting me to make the trek to Baker Creek to pick up snow peas just for flowering.
    Thanks,
    Margaret
    P.S. Just put up this years batch of Meyer Lemons. Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipe and your help with the process last year.

    Reply to Margaret's comment

    • Susy on March 13, 2012 at 7:25 am

      Yes I did like them, so much so that I let a bunch go to seed to save them for growing this year.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  17. Maybelline on March 12, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    Tall telephone Worked well for me. I trained the vines up string to create a wall of peas.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  18. Whit on March 12, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    I’m trying Sabre this year too. We use a local garden enthusiast’s peas–Ed Hume. He focuses on NW varieties, and i used to buy his seed up until i went all organic a few years ago. I purchased so many packages and never used them up…this is the year!

    We just planted our snap peas before the recent bout of wind/snow/hail/rain arrived. Next dry spell i am hoping for some time to plant the shellys. Hoping some of the old bamboo harvest left around here will suffice for stakes.

    Best of luck on your garden this year!

    Reply to Whit's comment

  19. cheryl on March 19, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    Hi, I found your blog by googling square foot gardening and I’m so happy I did! I’m creating my first garden and I’ve picked up a lot of valuable information here – thank you so much!! I live in NE Ohio as well, halfway between Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland. Is it too late for me to plant peas? I can’t wait to read some more of your blog later .. thanks again for great info!

    Reply to cheryl's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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