Alys Fowler's gardening columnGardening adviceThey’re gorgeous straight off the bush, but which variety would best suit your patch? Whatever you decide, prepare to fend off the pigeonsMy brother has a friend who works in frozen foods, and he points out that no one can capture the vitamin content of a pea better than his industry. The peas are frozen on the field within minutes of being picked. In contrast, by the time I have got my peas home from the allotment, they are slowly degrading, losing valuable vitamins and nutrients, turning sugars into starch, drying out and hardening into the seeds that they want to be. His peas may be frozen, but they are very, very fresh – much more so than mine.
The frozen food industry does an excellent job of making sure we all get healthy peas, but the gardener, if truth be known, never really grows peas to take them home – the gardener grows peas to eat then and there. For isn’t that the whole point of peas, to eat them off the bush? I am confident that I can eat peas quicker than any frozen pea expert can capture them in ice.
Peas are a doddle to grow. When putting them in the ground, space them around 10-15cm apart. If planting in rows, leave enough room so you can get between them to pick: this is somewhere between 45cm and 55cm, depending on how big you are. If you have limited space, send small children in to pick and you can get rows closer together. Whether you’ll then see any peas to eat yourself is a different matter.
Peas can successfully be grown in containers, up wigwams and tripods. The old-fashioned ‘Telephone’ is very tall (up to 9ft) and productive, sweet and non-starchy. Real Seeds has a new variety called ‘Rosakrone’, with pink and white flowers so pretty it could rival a sweetpea. Choose dwarf varieties such as ‘Tom Thumb’, ‘Oskar’ (very early), or ‘Charmette’ (petit pois type) if your pots are somewhere windy.
There are semi-leafless and leafless varieties, such as ‘Bikini’ (semi-leafless), ‘Lady Lacy’ (semi-leafless) and ‘Markana’ (leafless), bred for the commercial industry; these look strange, but are very productive. I like to make little bunches of sowings of these, maybe four or five seeds along the front of the border, where they take up little space.
The leafless kind are good if you are bothered by pigeons, as they are all stalks and peas, so there’s nothing for the birds to eat. But they do need very fertile ground.
Other than good ground, peas like water. In hot, dry weather they struggle. In the ground, concentrate on watering when the peas come into flower and pod. In containers, water whenever the soil has dried out. Peas are tough plants, but the best pods have been well watered.
Pigeons love peas and will destroy them at first light, so cover with netting. Pea weevil is another bother. The weevil eats tiny semi-circles into the edges of the pea shoots in spring; discard any dried pea seeds with holes in them. Mostly the plants adapt, but if the weather is cold and dry they will struggle. Protect with fleece and water often, so they outgrow the problem.
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