The peas were planted three weeks ago on April 12th. Spring peas are an important and reliable crop in our garden. I try to plant them early, when the chance of another killer freeze is minimal. I make ten trellises using T-posts and landscape fence. The trellises are windproof. The peas get plenty of sunshine and they are easy to harvest between the rows.
Pea Trellis
This trellis is made with 7 ½ foot T-posts and 3-foot-wide landscape fence cut to five-foot lengths. The fence is laced in place with jute twine. The posts are spaced three feet wide and two feet apart in my 20 foot bed. The ten trellises give me 20 three-foot-long rows of peas.
Yardsticks
I plant three-foot rows across the bed using 2-inch spacing. I lay the peas on the ground using yardsticks for guides. After I lay out two rows, one on each side of the landscape fences, I pull up the yardsticks and push the peas just into the soil with the tip of my weeder.
I make T-post trellises for a lot of crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, tomatillos, and melons. T-posts are strong and long-lasting. They make erecting temporary rugged structures in the garden quite easy. They are not hard to put up and take down.
We grow four varieties of peas: a soup pea from saved seed, a snap pea, a shelling pea, and a snow pea from seed we buy. Our harvests are truly beautiful and bountiful.
Dwarf Gray Sugar Pea