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No frozen, canned, or even fresh pea from a grocery store ever tasted as good as one picked right from your garden.

This morning I was able to get out into my garden and plant peas.  The traditional day for planting peas is St. Patrick’s day.  But I figure I’m still in the right neighborhood.

This year I planted green peas (shelling peas), snow peas and my favorite ornamental sweet peas.  There are too many seeds in a packet for my garden to hold, so I am sharing peas with my friend.

Sharing seeds is always a great idea.  Most seed packets have more than one person can use, unless you’re lucky enough to have a really large garden.

I always soak my peas for 24 hours in a bowl of water before planting.  I think it helps them germinate faster.  Be sure to add enough water.  They really plump up after a good soak.

I amended my soil with a good compost in the Fall.  So it was ready for me to just dig my little trench.  I planted them about 1″ deep and about 2″ apart.  Now all there is to it is to keep them moist… but not soggy until they germinate.  Be careful when watering to use a gentle method, you don’t want to wash away the soil.  Once my peas are about 4″ tall, I’ll fertilize them.

Notice the wire for them to climb.  It’s inexpensive concrete mesh from the hardware store.  I’ve used tree stakes to secure it upright.  I’ve wanted to build a nice cedar frame to hold the mesh, but for now the tree stakes work well.  After a few seasons the mesh has rusted to a lovely brown color.  And It’s just perfect for the peas to climb.

Here’s a picture of Emma, last June in the garden, eating peas.  I’ve told the kids if they pick a pod with 9 peas inside, they could make a wish on it.  Mostly they’re just happy to sit on the edge of the garden boxes and eat peas to their heart’s delight.

June isn’t all that far away and I’m content to wait.  For now I was happy with the little bit of sun we had this morning.  Just enough to enjoy being in the garden planting peas.

When after the Winter alarmin’,
The Spring steps in so charmin’,
So fresh and arch
In the middle of March,
Wid her hand St. Patrick’s arm on…
~Alfred Percival Graves

Go mbeannai Dia duit

Here’s to my favorite lad with the shamrock on his chest.