FLIP FLOPS! PEAS! It's early spring, people.

There's spring and then there's early spring.

Early spring is the time to get short season (less than two months, in this case) crops in the ground so that you can start eating from the garden again while you get those warm weather crops all grown up indoors for planting out in early May.

So, you're not going to be planting things like tomatoes and peppers and melons yet, but there's a good deal you *can* plant now that will just bask in the glory of cool temperatures and shorter days.

Think leafy greens, small root vegetables and the great wonder of the early spring garden - peas.

Peas are what I think of when I think of spring. Well, peas and daffodils and my flip flops.

Oh how I long for flip flops, exposed toes and the accumulated new warmth of early spring sun soaking through the foamy soles of those flip flops from the earth below.

But we're talking about peas - sorry.

Peas are easy to grow and love our Zone 9 climate this time of year (Feb-April), so get some going this weekend, plant them outside by St Patrick's Day and get in a harvest before the early part of spring is gone and it's just spring Spring.

Decide what type of peas you want
If you don't want to trellis your peas and you want a faster harvest, go for a dwarf or bush variety like the Sugar Ann Snap Pea. If you are into trellising your peas, the Tall Telephone Garden Pea is what we're growing in the test garden and its long vines will get up to 6' tall.

Choose a variety of pea
Shelling peas are the kind that are removed from the pod and eaten, whereas snap and snow peas are generally eaten pod and all. 

Start your peas
The hard shell of the pea makes germination hard for the tiny little sprout to crack, so take your pea seeds (which are just dried up little peas of yesteryear) and wrap them in a wet paper towel. Let them sit on your kitchen counter (they don't need light) for a week or so, keeping the towel damp, and watch for the first little sprout to poke out.

Plant your peas
Once your pea seeds have germinated, plant them 4-6" apart in your amended garden soil in direct sun with the sprout pointing up. Position your trellis with peas planted at each vertical growing spot and you'll see the seedlings emerge in a week or less.

Harvest your peas
Peas are fast growers and you will see the edible flowers (yes, you can get in an earlyEARLY spring crop by eating the flowers) within a month of planting them out. Harvest your shelling peas for fresh eating when the pod is round, bright green and shiny. Harvest snap and snow peas any time, but do try to get to them before the peas inside of the pods are tight against the pod since they might be bitter or starchy.

Get all that? Good job, you.