Fancy of having your own vining vegetable in your garden? Why not try to grow garden peas or snap peas. The snap peas are one of the earliest and the easiest vegetables that grow in the garden. Start to impress your family and friends by starting your own garden grown snap peas for salad and soup! Here\’s how you can grow your own snap peas on your garden.
Materials and tools you need:
- 2 wooden stakes (5 feet long)
- snap peas seeds
- bean and pea inoculate
- row cover
- hammer and mallet
- heavy garden twine
Steps:
- First, plan your snap pea garden. Snap peas can tolerate some shade but they prefer direct sunlight for at least 6 to 8 hours. You can grow peas during the spring and the fall seasons, as they are cooler weather crops.
- To handle the snap peas vining habit, built a pea trellis. To make the pea trellis, buy 2 wooden stakes and place one on either end of the area you plan to grow the snap peas. To pound the wooden stakes into the ground, use a hammer or mallet. Use a heavy twine to tie the wooden stakes between them and across the top and bottom. Then, create a pattern by twining in and out of the top and bottom lines. You don\’t have to be even making the pattern because the snap peas will prefer something more rugged.
- You can start to work the pea garden soil in early spring. Snap peas growths are influenced by the large amount of nitrogen. If you are planting the peas at least a week before that, add a bean and pea inoculate.
- You can find and purchase snap pea seeds in most garden and home stores and local greenhouses. Before purchasing, make some survey with the internet garden retail stores for different varieties of snap peas.
- Sow the snap pea seeds about 3 inches apart. Push the seeds down at least ½ inch into the soil. This will prevent the birds and other wildlife from digging them up. To protect the snap peas from late freezes, use row covers. If the seeds are unprotected, the hard freezes may kill snap peas. Use a lightweight blanket at night to cover the pea bed as alternative if you can\’t buy a row cover.
- If the snap peas seedlings grow, train them to climb the trellis once the peas have started to send out tendrils. Take these tendrils gently and warm around the twine. Usually it will take a day or two for the snap pea tendrils to take hold of the twine. You can repeat the process every other day until the pea plant has started to climb the trellis on its own.
Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2100173_grow-snap-peas.html
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/296647234/
