There is just
nothing like chomping down on a vegetable that you have grown yourself.
From the time I was able to separate seeds from melons I have been
growing things, often much to my mother's dismay. I would use any plastic
container that I could find, fill it with dirt dug up from the backyard, pop
the seed in, place the container on the sill of my bedroom window, and wait.
It was always with a great sense of wonder that I would watch the first bit of
greenery spring from beneath the soil. As you can imagine, I yielded little or
no harvest in my bedroom with my sherbet containers and spindly vines, but the
mere act gave me endless joy.
My love for
gardening never stopped. I've had big gardens, small gardens, raised gardens,
ornate herb gardens, Oriental gardens, and now confine most of my gardening to
containers on my back deck. Honestly, even though I only have about a dozen
containers, sometimes I get a larger harvest from these colorful pots than I
ever did from a much larger garden. On my deck I don't have to battle the
rabbits, raccoons, or squirrels, that often ended up enjoying more of my
bounty than I did.
This year, itching to plant something early, I opted for peas. I had always
been told that peas needed to be in the ground and trained up a constructed
trellis made of stakes and a crisscross of wires. I beg to differ. They will climb pretty much anything from an inverted tomato tower, to a teepee of bamboo
stakes, to a couple of dead tree branches, to a cone-shaped trellis like I
have. Peas do need
cool weather, so it is best to plant early (the bonus being that a second crop
can be planted at summer's end to enjoy until frost). They grow rather
quickly, so are a most gratifying crop. To grow them you will need a
decent sized pot of 12”-18”, potting soil mixed with some sand or
perlite (I use a combination of both) to prevent it from packing, a sunny spot,
and the commitment to keep the soil uniformly moist.
Because peas prefer cool conditions, plant them early in the season, spacing
the seeds two inches apart, and covering them with 1/2”-3/4” of soil.
Water well, and wait. This season has been rainy, humid, and rather warm, and
the peas seem to love it. After a good rain it seems as if they have grown two
inches. White blossoms will first appear, giving way to green pods. Watch them
and don't harvest until the pods are plump with fat, juicy peas.
Like other cool
weather vegetables they'll bolt in the heat. When production has stopped, pull
up the plants, toss them into the compost, and plant a warm weather crop in its
place.
I cannot wait to taste my first bite of my own freshly grown peas. Ahhhh,
summer!
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3 comments:
Bonsoir chère amie,
Une bonne idée que de faire des plantations de petits pois en pot ! Ils ont déjà généreusement poussé.
Merci pour le partage et je reste très admirative devant vos belles photos.
Gros bisous ☼
I was researching what kind of container to grow peas in and found your wonderful piece. Now I know: any container! Thank you.
I am so glad that you found this post to be of help. We container gardeners need to stick together! Our weather went from winter right into the heat of summer, with 90° temperatures in early May, so I did not to get the opportunity to plant any peas. I was sorry about that, because there is nothing like the taste of fresh peas.
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