Here are Anneliese and Andy planting peas. Andy previously had set T- posts 36 inches apart across the width of the beds and 24 inches apart along the outside edges of the bed to give us 10 trellises spaced two feet apart to work with.
24” landscape fencing cut to 5-foot lengths is laced in between the posts to create the 10 individual trellises.
The peas are planted 2” apart and 1/2 inch deep along each side of the trellis. Yardsticks make the spacing easy.
This year we planted four varieties: Capucijner – our saved seed, 4 trellises, about 152 peas. Capucijners are also called “purple podded soup pea”. We grow a lot to store dry. We use them for a soup base.
From Johnny’s Seeds: 2 trellises each, about 76 peas of each variety: Premier Shelling Pea, Oregon Giant, Sugar Snap. All of these peas will be eaten fresh or fresh frozen.
Historically, the trellis system has performed very well. The peas like the trellis and the spacing makes harvesting easy. The unused space in the bed lends itself well to interplanting with other crops. We’ve put down lettuce seed between the rows and around the sides of the bed.