Peas - The Laurence Hills Way

Taken from Laurence Hills book “Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables” Tried and compared by one of our members.

Peas that are to stand persistent picking for eating raw before the pods pack tight, and for cooking afterwards, need trenches six to eight inches wide and deep, two feet apart, and half filled with trodden lawn mowings and even sink basket refuse, with the unrotted top of the compost heap coming in useful for the earliest rows before the first mowing. Whiten this layer with lime and add two inches of soil before sowing seed two inches apart in two rows with three inches between them down the middle of each trench. Then cover them with another two inches of soil and leave them safely growing under their pea guards.

Using this method but being less particular about the number of peas and the spacing between them in each trench, the successional sowings in 2007 were very successful as were the two overwintering rows that were sown on 27th October last year and provided four good pickings between the 27th May and 19th June this year.

However, it is the two rows sown on 22nd April that have really surprised us. One was sown over grass mowings etc. but the second was just in a standard drill. When they started to show through, the row over grass cuttings was a day or so earlier and the germination seemed a little better although neither row had been covered (over the peas and below the soil) with short lengths of dead bramble stem which is our usual practice to discourage mice so there may have been more eaten.

Since they first came through the difference between the two rows has become progressively more obvious. That over grass cuttings is strong, green, growing well and covered with filling pods and many more flowers. The other is distinctly yellow, very much shorter and although there are filling pods there does not seem to be so many and new flowers are much less numerous. To us the evidence speaks for itself and obviously the extra effort is well worthwhile and yes, Laurence Hills did know a thing or two!

All the peas we have grown like this have been Kelvedon Wonder, an old variety that has also stood the test of time. I don't quite know why I am surprised that this way of growing peas has been so successful, as for years we have been digging out a trench for runner beans and filling it with almost everything from well rotted compost to old mattresses (not the modern interior sprung ones) to get a good crop. Yet a second successive crop of peas on the same place is not happy and never seems to thrive (and neither do broad beans) whereas runner beans can apparently be grown in the same place for several years without ill effect - something else to ponder on! There is always more to learn, often from other gardeners but also from books old and new.

MH