How to grow and harvest peas?

Gardening is  one of my favorite hobbies and another great thing about gardening is all I have to do  is walk out to my garden, when my produce is ready and pick it, instead of having to go to the grocery store.

To me, all vegetables taste better when picked fresh, and this is definitely the truth about peas. Peas are very easy to grow, and they have types of peas that are dwarf and climbing and these types can be grown in small plots. If I sow my peas little and  often, I will be able to enjoy fresh peas from late spring to mid-fall which is great for my family.

After I decide that I am going to grow some more peas, I will have to get the right peas seeds for which ever time of the year that I am growing them. Peas comes in two different forms. Smooth-seeded varieties is the one that seeds are sweeter tasting and spring and all summer and we can enjoyed them through mid-fall.

I would like to talk about some different varieties of peas. "Oregon Sugar Pod" is a sugar snap pea that has to be harvested as a whole pod while it is young. "Douce Provence" is a dwarf pea plant and they produce very well in pots or containers. "Feltham First" is one that I will be planting early and this one grows real good in containers.
I need to plant my peas seeds in the spring so I can plant them out later on when the weather warms. Now, for me to get ready for a earlier crop, I have to sow them in the fall and I would keep them under cover to plant out the larger plants in the spring. I will sow the seeds in deep pots that I have filled with seed compost. After I sow the seeds, I will water the seeds well and they will germinate in two weeks. I will let them keep growing, then I will harden them off, and when the plants reaches 8 inches tall, this is when I plant them in my garden.

When it stats to warm up where I live in the spring, I will make a drill 4 inches wide and 2 inches deep. I then will water each drill real good, and then space 2 inches apart along the length of the drill. After I plant all of my seeds I will cover the seeds with soil and I will water well. When I am getting ready to sow my seeds in the summer, I will go out to my garden and water the soil where I will be sowing my seeds two days beforehand, and then I will sow my seeds deeper at 3 inches deep instead of 2 inches deep.

Most of the varieties of peas are climbing plants and they will need support as they grow. After I plant my peas, I will insert stakes along the rows of all of my peas so they have them for support. Sometimes I also put up chicken wire with my stakes for support.

During the summer, when my peas are growing, they need to be kept well-watered especially when in flower or pod.

Peas are ready to harvest from early summer onward. I will pick my peas as soon as they mature, and we will eat them very shortly after I pick them because this is when they are the sweetest. I also like to freeze some of my peas so we can enjoy them throughout winter. If I decided that I want to save some seeds for next year, all I have to do is leave a few pods to dry on the pea plants and turn yellow at the end of the summer. this way I will have my seeds for next year.