St. Patrick’s Day Peas

If you talk to people who have been gardening in Boise for a long time, many will tell you that St. Patrick’s Day is the day to plant PEAS in Boise.

Carol McCord taught me many years ago that St. Patrick’s day was the day to plant peas.  For several years, when I had the honor to visit Carol and her beautiful garden,  I always admired her healthy looking peas that were already coming up, before mine had even been planted.  “When do you start your peas?”  “Always on St. Patrick’s day.” She would say.   “That is when mom always planted them and I plant them on that day.  It is a tradition.”  She would also add wood ash from her fire place to the soil months before,  soak the seeds over night and add some inoculant the hole when she planted them.  She always beautiful peas and before it got too hot in the summer.  Once it is hot, peas become very unhappy.

Peas are amazing.  They are one of the best vegetables to eat straight out of the garden.  There is nothing like walking up to a pea plant and pulling a pea off the vine and eating it.  Peas in the garden could teach any child to love vegetables!  Not only are peas out of the garden delicious, but they add nitrogen to the soil.  Nodules of nitrogen can be found on their roots, which should be left in the soil after the peas are done and used to feed other plants.  Peas are actually a good cover crop to replenish the soil after something that uses a lot of nitrogen has been planted there.  I currently have peas growing in the raised beds of my greenhouse to help replenish the soil. (I planted them early because they are in a greenhouse and being used as a cover crop)

There are 3 kinds of peas, Snap, Shelling and Snow and many different varieties within these groups.  For kids and the ones I always plant now are:  SNAP!

Sugar Snap peas: You can eat the pod and the peas and they are very sweet! Shelling Peas: You must remove the pod and just eat the peas.  You can chew on the pod, but it is very fibrous.                                                                                          Snow Peas:  They are flat.  You can eat the pod and the peas inside, but the peas are very small.  These are not as sweet as Snap peas.

To Plant Peas:

• Look on the seed packet to see “DAYS to HARVEST” to see the amount of days they will take to fruit.  This ranges from 50 days to 70+ days.  If you can find one with fewer days like ‘Sugar Ann’ – 52 days, you will have peas sooner and you avoid them trying to grow in the heat.  Peas are a cool season crop so once it gets hot they tend to stop growing and go dormant.  The peas themselves change flavor from sweet to dry and sour.  So go for a low amount of days!   The 52 day count starts after the plant is up and out of the ground, not the day you put the seed in.  You can add the days to germinate to get a better idea of when you might have peas.
• Soak your pea seeds the night before you plan to plant them by putting them in a bowl of room temp. water.
• Seeds like to be planted only as deep as they are big, so you can either use a stick or your finger to plant them in the ground 1/2″ deep, or you can dig a row, put the peas in 4″ apart and cover with 1/2-1″ soil.  If you peas will need trellising, plant them near a trellis or a plant where you can create a trellis behind them.  I like to plant them where it will be easy to sit and pick them, so I usually plant them along the edge of a bed, where they will be easy to get to.
• Put the inoculant in the hole with the peas.
• Rain should water them in at this time of the year, but watch them. You don’t want new seedling drying out.  On the other hand you don’t want them too wet.  To test how wet the soil is, take a hand full  of soil.  Squeeze it in your hand.  The soil should stay together nicely, but not be dripping with water TOO WET.  It should not fall apart too easily either, TOO DRY.  It should just make a nice, fragile ball in your hand.

Pea greens & flowers can be eaten and are delicious.  Some times, when I just can’t wait another day for the peas to be there, I cut the greens and put them in a salad.  The greens have the same taste as a pea.  When you cut them you run the risk of cutting off blooms where the peas will be so now I designate a few plants at the end of my row that can be cut for their greens.