Sowing Peas in Gutters

Peas are usually sown direct in the ground but they can be prey to cold soil, biting winds, mice and slugs. Another technique is to sow them in 120cm lengths of guttering in the warmth of the polytunnel and then transplant them a few weeks later by sliding the contents of the guttering into a shallow trench across the width of a 120cm wide bed. The peas are sown in two rows in the gutter with peas about 7cm apart. The compost in the gutter can be watered prior to inserting the peas a nail's width deep; cover with dry compost.

Leave the gutter on your bench area or it could go underneath while waiting for the seedlings to show.

The gutter technique can be used for a variety of crops such as lettuce and salad leaves.

Planting Gutter Peas into a Shallow Trench

There is a video on how to ease your pea gutter into a narrow trench. You could also do it in shorter sections.

Peas and beans planted across a 1.2m bed

Have the pea row about 60 cm from other rows.

Sarah Raven has another take on the use of gutter pipes for lots of different seeds. Clever stuff

Pea Sticks

We shall add pea sticks before the peas get too big. Pea sicks - cut from the hedgerows - are an alternative to the canes and strings used for broad beans and the net and canes used for runner beans.