By Jennifer
Pea plants want to climb and produce best when their tendrils
have something to grasp. This often involves the man-made creation of a frame,
such as the simple method of stakes at the end of a garden row with lines of
string running horizontally between them.
Sure, that works, but guess what? You won’t need any
structure at all if you plant your peas close together in blocks instead of
rows.
Think of the phrase “standing room only,” which describes an
event so packed with people that there is no room to sit. If you invite enough
peas to your party they will latch onto each other as they grow upward. Even
the plants at the edges will be connected to the group and not fall to the
ground where blossoms and pods are more susceptible to rot and pests.
I space my peas two inches apart and planted an entire
4x8-feet garden box this way this season. (That’s a lot of peas!) Far from
crowding each other out, the peas grow strong. There’s no room for weeds. You don’t need to devote an area the scale of
mine –- try planting peas in a grid of 4 seeds by 4 seeds (16 seeds in a square
foot). I learned of this spacing from Mel Bartholomew’s square-foot garden
approach. Although I don’t have the same soil makeup he recommends, I have had
great success growing peas this way.
Also, it’s not too late in the season to plant peas –- if
you choose the right kind. I recommend the seed variety Lincoln, which can
withstand high temperatures. These plants keep forming blossoms well into the
100-degree days of July. Then you can plant another crop at the end of summer for a fall harvest.
2 comments:
I would love to try this. I've not heard of that variety, but it would be wonderful to have peas almost year-round. Ours have been spent for the last month or so because of the heat. Good to see you posting!
Thanks for sharing useful info on virtually identical, here i got lots of knowledge about it.
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