In My Garden: Planting Snow Peas

When errant snow pea and sweet pea seedlings show up in the gravel next to my raised beds, I know it’s time to plant them.

My heirloom Golden Sweet Snow Peas went in this week. It’s a pleasant early fall ritual that connects me to my days in Massachusetts of planting peas in March.

I would wait for garden conditions to be right—ground still cool but thawed and workable. Hopefully the worst of mud season had passed by mid-March. “Plant your peas by St. Patrick’s Day and you’ll have peas by the Fourth of July,” was the saying.

I’ve grown these yellow snow peas in my garden for over twenty years. They are well adapted to my USDA Zone 10b garden. I shared my seed some years ago with San Diego Seed Company and you can purchase Organic Yellow Sugar Pod Pea Seeds.

From my saved seed I select the largest seed to plant. Soaking it in water for 24 hours hastens germination.

In the six inch trench, I work in a thick layer of compost and organic fertilizer. I douse the wet seed with soil inoculant before planting. The snow peas are thickly sown per Jim Crockett of The Victory Garden TV series, about 1.5 inches apart in the trench. I press the seed in with my finger about 3/4 inch, covering with sifted compost.

When I have brush from tree trimmings I use that to support the pea plants and direct them to the six foot trellis. But lately I’ve used bamboo from the ready supply in our yard. Check my blog post on Pea Brush. Robert Frost thought pea brush worthy of a poem.

The pea blossoms are enchanting and I couldn’t resist including the styling at the Rare Seeds website.

And our now departed Lucy loved snow peas too. We left the lower ones for her.