In recent years, I have been pursuing & trialing the "afila" (semi-leafless) varieties, such as "Novella" & "Mesa". They are short, self-supporting if planted closely (well adapted to wide rows), and tend to ripen uniformly... but so far, the yield has been disappointing, and the harvest window short. "Mesa" demonstrates considerable instability, and I am hoping to improve it. There is even an afila snap pea, "Sugar Lace". The pods are quite large for a sugar snap, and borne on short 12" vines. The original had very poor germination for me, even after multiple attempts; "Sugar Lace II" (which is still a PVP variety) has fared much better. But my all-time favorite green pea is "Green Arrow", for its large pods, compact vines, and high yield.

Thanks sinfonian! I KNOW Its big. I KNOW its wide. But like I said, until I had it filled and was putting my twine grid up I didn't even realize that it was 5x10 instead of 4x8. I yelled at my husband for not telling me when he cut the one board in half for me LOL. But its done, it is what it is this year. There is NO way I'm tearing it down and starting it over. I planted my strawberries yesterday afternoon. Although they looked kind of sad, so it'll be interesting to see what grows and doesn't grow. I have not planted my pickling cucs, nor tomatoes, nor peas yet. Those were started in separate containers. The beans are bush beans so from the reading I did they won't need anything to climb. I will put something in for the peas to climb though, and tomatoes too. Thats why I spread them out so that I can still get in and to other stuff. So much to learn! I'll be happy if ANYTHING grows this year LOL. Even one plant ;)

Wow, that is quite a garden! I went nuts the first couple of years we lived here. With 2.5 acres I had a huge garden and gave a lot away that I didn't can or freeze. I finally realized after a couple of years that we didn't need all that for 3 people. So after 22 years I have scaled it down quite a bit and do a rotation of crops through out the year. I just plant small batches now, but do them every few weeks so have it all season rather than all at once. I have an all year garden out here in CA. Took me awhile to get a handle on that, was use to winters back East. And I don't can or freeze that much any more. I bought a dehydrator last year but haven't had enough to try it. LOL Right now I have lettuce(3 kinds), swiss chard, kohlrabi, tomatoes (4 kinds), peppers, onions, winter & summer squash (6 kinds), parsley, chives, basil, mint. Soon to have beans, don't know why they took so long this year. I still keep a calendar gardner's journal of when I planted and how well things did. Clare

Johnny's Selected Seeds addressed this issue with peas recently. Here is some info from them: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/vegetables/selection-pea-seed-quality.html They had/have a breeder working on "cleaning up" the seed stock for them. I have experienced unwanted variations in some of the varieties I grow the last few years. Some edible pod peas were definitely NOT edible to me. I've even thought about spacing some of my own plants widely and rouging out the unwanted ones and then saving (hopefully) truer to type seed myself. My worst seed lots were from two different types of peas, one a snow pea variety and one a snap type variety. They were from two different vendors....one sold at a local store, and one ordered online. Both are well known names, but I prefer not to name them as I think this is a widespread problem. Neither one was Johnny's, though. I think they are working hard to supply their customers with top quality seed. Hopefully, other companies will do the same.