I was thrilled when my newly planted peas came up within a few days. That was one benefit of the Hot Week, when it was over 100 degrees for many days in a row. The seeds were bedded in a temporarily partly shady place behind the zinnias and parsley, so the earth stayed moist.
They are petite and very cute, growing close together next to the tall trellis where I planned to train them upward… until after they were up I read online, and then confirmed it by checking the packet, that Sugar Ann snap peas are a Bush Type of plant, and typically grow only 1-2 feet tall. I have grown peas for more than half my life, so why would I have read the description and instructions?? The packet had been a kind gift a few months ago from Hearth and Field; my thought process on rediscovering them in my box of seeds went quickly from “Oh, goody!” to “Must plant these right away!” and I did that very efficiently.
Efficiency is not one of the guiding principles of Hearth and Field, however, and I should have embarked on my pea project more in the spirit and manner of the vision expressed on the website of that journal:
Welcome to Hearth & Field!
We are the only journal you’ll find
that makes the internet move
at the pace and rhythm of real life.
Hearth and Field also quotes G.K. Chesterton at the top of that home page, saying,
“The simplification of anything is always sensational.”
I don’t have time to think more about how that second quote relates to my peas. [Update: I originally put something here about Winston Churchill’s Chartwell peas, which I attributed to Chesterton, which is very embarrassing, and there is no way to fix it, so I removed it. Thank you to my blessed reader Amy who noticed.]
In Real Life, “Haste makes waste,” right? But that motto doesn’t convey quite everything about how I will need to spend an extra hour today that I was not planning on. I will transplant those little starts to the middle of the planter box, so as to free up the trellis for planting Green Beauty snow peas from Baker Creek, because it would be a waste of my beautiful trellis to do otherwise. This is how “the pace and rhythm of real life” works in real life!
Gladsome Lights 
I was intrigued by the Chesterton quotation, and went looking for its original source. I didn’t find that, being a little short on time myself, but I did find these other wonderful words of Chesterton: “[The] heroic desire to return to nature, is, of course, in some respects, rather like the heroic desire of a kitten to return to its own tail.” Some day I may delve into the article where I found that.
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I hadn’t read that one before! I’ll look forward to your thoughts on it.
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A thoughtful post – thank you.
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Snow peas, snap peas and sweet peas…I like them all.
I hope your tiny peas are not set back after they are transplanted.
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Are they going to be enough, enough for you to actually cook and eat, Gretchen? I am reminded of something in Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun: she was in a piazza, and passed by a woman sitting with a big bowl, shelling peas. Frances knew enough Italian to hear the woman say, “It shouldn’t happen to a dog.” I always took it to mean she was lamenting having to shell so many peas.
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Both of the edible peas I’m growing have edible pods: snow peas and sugar snap peas. I’ve never grown the peas that one has to shell — I guess those are called “shelling peas.” I do remember helping my grandpa to shell fresh peas that my grandma bought; I wonder if stores even carry those much anymore? I can’t imagine growing enough to make it “worth it” in a backyard garden, in this era when frozen peas are pretty tasty.
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Oh, you probably said that in your post, Gretchen. I grew peas once, many years ago. Not that many, but I never was tempted to repeat it. 🙂
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I found my pea plant last year beside the road. This year it even grew and bloomed more profusely. It looks just like the one in your photo..it is pink.
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I believe Chartwell was Winston Churchill’s beloved home, not Chesterton’s… A beloved home of a honorable man either way! 🙂
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Of course it was! Thank you so much for catching that. I shouldn’t write these things when I am dead tired.
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