Next week: Focus on broad beans, plant dwarf/tumbling tomatoes, check for pests under glass, give bees access to cloched flowers, and intercropping.
Lucy’s tips
Grow mouth-poppingly moreish peas
■ Pea seeds remain viable for a good three years, but after this germination rates quickly decline.
■ Choose dwarf peas for pot culture. Taller heritage peas crop over a much longer period, so can also be useful.
■ Leafless peas are less prone to foliar disease, though yields are slightly lower and weed competition is weaker.
■ Pea roots ‘fix’ nitrogen from the soil, so leave these to rot down once the crop has finished.
■ Pea flowers self-pollinate while still closed. Collect your own seed as very little cross-pollination occurs.
Once mature, sugars turn
