Peas in a raised bed
Blue Onion
Posts: 2,995
I've grown in raised beds for the past two years, since moving to a new house. The beds are four foot wide, and about 15 feet long. The first year I grew peas on a support in the middle, so two foot from either edge. It was a bit tricky to reach over the other plants growing along the sides (particularly where the pumpkins and squash sauntered out across the lawn), and impossible for my little ones to reach (what is better than grazing fresh peas while playing?). Last year I grew them wrapped around the outside with sweet corn in the middle. This worked better, but it was extremely difficult thinning out and weeding the sweetcorn as the four foot tall pea fence was up directly after planting.
If you grow in a raised bed, where do you plant your peas?
I'm half thinking of building a new raised bed only two foot wide just for the peas, but that isn't ideal due to crop rotation considerations. Any suggestions? I need raised beds due to poor clay soil.
Posts
I grow mine in raised beds of similar width to yours, in wide rows across the bed. I can reach the middle of the row from either side, so access isn't a problem.
I have 2 foot beds because I only have access from one side. First year I grew them along the fence side (back) and didn't really have any problems but it made the rest of the bed difficult to use.
Last year I grew them front to back in the other bed which worked OK but I did find myself standing on the timbers to reach the back properly (I use 6x2 so plenty to stand on).
This year I'm trying something completely different - got some long balcony type pots about 6" wide and 6" deep x about 3 feet long (I'm guessing, I just got the biggest ones). The aim is to position these near the raised beds but a bit out from the fence so I can walk down the back of the row if I want to. Internet research suggests peas will grow in containers of this sort of size, BUT will need feeding unlike peas grown in the ground. This because Peas absorb nitrogen from the air and store it in the roots, so with a shallow container root system they can't store enough nitrogen and need a boost. Of course I may have just taken them out of my crop rotation system, but I will probably use fresh compost each year for the peas and dig the pea compost into the other beds. That's the plan - no idea if it will work or I will remember to follow through on all the parts of it!