Tips for success with a summer essential

In the days of the old, walled garden more ground was devoted to growing peas than to anything else. They grew a succession of varieties, most of them tall and long-podded, from March until June. Most peas were eaten fresh and green, but they also grew marrowfat peas and dried them for winter soups and stews.

I love growing peas. They are a summer essential and if there's one vegetable that's a million times better eaten fresh, it's the pea.

There's still time to sow them now, but the secret of growing early peas is to sow them once spring has just started because they are cool-season plants that grow best between 13-18 degrees C (55-64 F). They prefer light soil, but will grow on heavier soil too, though you may have to plant them slightly later in the year on cold soils. They like a well-cultivated tilth and crop best when the soil has been enriched the previous autumn. They also prefer limy soil to acid conditions and they can be given lime if needed.

Extra potash and phosphate can also be used to boost fertility but, like all legumes, they fix their own nitrogen by producing nodules on their roots, so don't use a nitrogen-rich fertiliser. They don't need it.

When I sow, I use plenty of seeds remembering the old adage "one for the mouse, one for the crow and one to grow". I zig-zag the seeds across a shallow trench measuring six inches in width and form diagonal v-shaped lines also about six inches in length. The zig-zagged row allows me to hoe and weed from the outer edges once the peas germinate, something that's impossible with straight lines.

As soon as I've sowed them I give them a good watering in, using a can, and then stake with hazel twigs collected and cut in winter. You can use wire too. Then I await the light-green explosion of leaves and tendrils and the delicate white flowers. You may need to protect emerging seeds from birds and in mice-infested gardens you may have to use mouse traps. Sometimes germination can be poor, but just use extra seeds to fill the gaps.

Once planted, your peas will need watering in dry spells, again with a watering can, because they hate dry conditions. The biggest pest problem is the pea moth, which produces tiny white grubs that devour the peas. These unpleasant creatures tend to attack later in the year and early varieties of pea can be unaffected. The pea moth overwinters in the soil and you must always move the crop to a new site, but peas add nitrogen-rich fertility to your soil and benefit the next crop.

Mangetout, or sugar peas, are easier to grow than podded peas and you eat the whole pod when young, but they are not as delicious as proper peas despite their nouvelle cuisine image. Good mangetout varieties include "Sugar Ann" and "Oregon Sugar Pod". I always grow some of them. Podded peas are divided into first earlies, second earlies and maincrop varieties and "Kelvedon Wonder" (a first early), "Greenshaft" (a second early) and "Hurst Green Shaft " (a maincrop) are all good tried and tested varieties.

Suppliers: The Organic Gardening Catalogue 08454 130 1304, www.organicCataolgue.com; Thompson and Morgan 01473 695225, www.thompson-morgan.com Don't forget to send details of your gardening events to gardening@nqo.com