How to grow peas

Peas are a cool-season vining legume that goes into the ground before most of the garden is ready, since the seed germinates in soil as cool as 40 degrees and the vines shrug off frost, though open blossoms cannot. Home gardeners grow shelling types, where only the seed is eaten, and edible-pod types picked young and eaten whole. Pea roots fix their own nitrogen, and most varieties climb, so brush or a trellis set at planting time keeps the vines off the ground and the pods easy to find.

The hardest part of growing peas well is getting the timing early enough. Clemson Cooperative Extension notes that peas tolerate frost and light freezes but not summer heat, and recommends planting as early in spring as the ground can be worked rather than waiting for a frost-free date. A second-year gardener who treats peas like beans or tomatoes and waits for warmer soil ends up with vines just starting to flower as heat arrives, and production stalls before it gets going. The steady weeks of picking a pea patch should offer collapse into a handful of pods before the vines give out.