Mangetout Peas

We associate mangetout peas with early summer, but you can harvest them from April onwards if you sow them now. They are surprisingly hardy.  Sow about four seeds of ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ or any other variety in four-inch (10 cm) pots of good compost and place them in your tunnel or glasshouse.  Protect them from mice until they germinate, and from slugs thereafter.  Don’t water them too heavily, and keep them covered with bubble-wrap or fleece at nights to speed up germination.  Plant them into a composted trench in the border soil when the plants are about 3” (8 cm) tall.  Push in short pea-sticks on either side of the row to support the plants and keep their growing tips off the soil surface, where slugs would eat them.  Ventilate well during the day to reduce mildew infections.  Cover over the rows at night with fleece or bubble-wrap to protect them on very cold nights.  Add in longer pea-sticks if the plants need them.  The plants should be ready to flower by April, and generous watering and some feed will help boost yield.  Harvest the pods often to keep the plants flowering.  You can sow a second, later crop to extend cropping until the outdoor crop comes in.  Enjoy!