Peas and sugar snap: a bit of a disaster

In my mind I took loads of pictures, but this is it.  A few of my sugar snap crop, there was more than this, but not endless amounts.  The variety is Jessy

Like everything in life, you have great successes and you have complete and utter failures.  Last year my sugar snap peas and normal peas were two of the true successes of my vegetable growing exploits, with nice big bountiful crops.  This year has been a completely different story.  It has been poor, very very poor.  A few mistakes I made during the growing season have made numbers lacklustre at best.  What I have had has tasted great, but it has been a morsel rather than a feast.

The first and main problem is the size of my vegetable patch.  It is simply too small.  I have to plant things far too close so everything just ends up merging together into one huge mass.  There is also no access route to the back other than through the plants at the front, leading to an often neglected back row.  I had the same problem last year, but this year I have had enough.  I am digging up the lawn, with or without permission.  I am also moving that random allium at the front which is perpetually in the way.

The second thing was a dumb move on my part.  My labelling of the seed trays wore off, leaving me unable to tell which tray were Kelvedon Wonder peas and which Jessy sugar snap.  To add to this I planted the two right next to each other, one row actually made up of a combination of the two.  I thought as they grew the difference between the two would become more obvious.  Certainly last year my sugar snaps and peas were very different looking plants to each other, the sugars being thin and spindly while the peas had those thick juicy stems.  Not this year.  This year they were identical.  The problem with this is I couldn't tell when to pick the pods, so decided to wait until some puffed up, evidence of pea making.  But virtually all of them puffed up, leaving me thoroughly confused.  While the variety of pea I grew this year was absolutely fine, I have to admit that I did prefer the great big marrowfat peas I grew last year.  Yes the taste is less refined, but they are just such good solid peas.  You really feel like you have grown something substantial.

A few of my early summer pickings, peas, sugar snaps, sweet peas and broad beans

I also need to learn my lesson that sugar snaps, and I imagine peas and broad beans, can not be planted in succession to try and extend the season.  Despite what the packets might say.  The last batch never grows well and this was the case this year.  Small spindly pants that haven't grown tall and had very few flowers.  What beans it did produce mainly hung in the soil and were eaten by pests.  In my mind they last all summer when in fact they are basically over by the start of summer.

It was such a sorry state of affairs down there that I was desperate to rip out all the plants to remove the continual reminder of the failure.  In the end I picked what had virtually formed and then took the whole lot out.  The last few peas didn't have much inside, but those that did also had a few little unwelcome friends wiggling within, a sign they were getting old.  Its definitely enough to make the stomach turn.

My thoroughly unruly vegetable patch.  What a mess

Im really beginning to question the value of growing peas, along with broad beans, although less so for sugar snap.  There seems to be a lot of effort for very little reward.  Had I not already bought next years crop I would swap them up for something else.  As it is I think I will have a completely different approach, sow lots, get them in quick all at once to make enough for meals and then get them out and move on.  The packets imply you can get a crop right through until the end of summer, but I think get in there early and then move on.  Unfortunately a lack of forward planning this year means my vegetable bed in the back garden is currently lying empty, awaiting what will be my first attempt at a winter crop.

So all in all, a bit of a disappointing year.  What I did eat was great and really tasty, there just definitely wasn't enough to share.