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My Garden Plants
Michael L McClain
St James, NY
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the legume Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a (pea) flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking. The name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae such as the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), and the seeds from several species of Lathyrus.
P. sativum is an annual plant, with a life cycle of one year. It is a cool season crop grown in many parts of the world; planting can take place from winter to early summer depending on location. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36 grams. The species is used as a vegetable, fresh, frozen or canned, and is also grown to produce dry peas like the split pea. These varieties are typically called field peas.
Wikipedia March 2011
This afternoon I sowed two rows of Mayfair shell peas from Turtle Tree Seed in the bed next to the low privet hedge outside the bathroom window. I sowed them about three inches apart, about an inch deep, in rows six or eight inches apart. I used about half the seeds.
I installed stakes in which I drilled holes to string twine to serve as a support for the peas. I strung twine throught the stakes. I got the twine at East Hampton Hardware, where the salesman said this type would last through the summer.
Today the peas are just starting to poke up through the soil. It has been raining occasionally during the past few days.
The peas did well. We got a nice crop (enough for 8 - 10 servings) during the last week in June. The support held up nicely. The only problem: mustard plants had grown up amid the peas hampering harvest.
In late June I planted a row of seeds along the fence in the garden. Only three plants came up. Yield in mid July: two servings.