Laxton's Progress Shell Pea

Peas are fun, fast, and can be sown at the first sign of spring. The pea shoots and climbing tendril-festooned vines keep you company throughout the many spring garden tasks--and provide beautiful flowers and a promise that summer's-finally-here.

Peas love cool weather, so sow them the first or second week of April. You can probably get away with plantings up to early May, but after this you're better off waiting until mid-summer (for a fall crop) or next spring.

Soak peas overnight, inoculate them, and then sow them in rows (or double rows, or even more). While you're waiting for the first tendrils to emerge through the moist spring soil (what joy!), you can install a trellis up which the young plants will quickly climb. You can use string and 2x2 posts spaced every ten feet, or you can use chicken wire, or old bed frames salvaged from a dilapidating Catskills resort (that's how we've done it in the past).