By Sarah Yale
There’s an old saying about planting your peas on Saint Patrick’s Day to bring good luck to the harvest. It might be a little past Saint Patrick’s Day but it’s still too cold for planting outdoors, since there could still be frost in Maryland. Luckily, you can plant peas indoors for a fun, interesting project for kids.
Peas are easy to grow, germinate in a week or two, flower in four to six weeks, and are ready to harvest in a few months. You can eat the pea pods that the peas grow in and also eat the peas, raw or cooked.
What You Need
Head to the local garden center to pick up some seeds, potting soil, and 4” peat pots. Read the seed packets to choose the right one for your gardening preferences. There are dwarf varieties that don’t need supports or a trellis if you want to transplant them to patio containers, or give them as gifts. If space allows, you can grow a large crop and donate some to a food pantry or the community dining room.
Plant the Seeds
Fill the peat pots with soil packed down lightly. Water the pots and add more soil if needed. Plant one pea seed in the center of each pot by poking a hole in the soil about a half-inch deep. Cover the seed and place the pots near a warm, sunny window on a tray to catch any water drips. The room should be 65-70 degrees, with lots of sun throughout the day. Hardware stores carry plant light bulbs that fit into regular home lamps. Water when the pots look dry to discourage mold growth. Peas are self-pollinating so they can grow indoors.
Chart the Growth
Have kids make a poster or journal about your project, tracking the growth weekly. Make and color a new plant drawing on the poster or in a journal every week, after measuring the change in plant size and leaf development. The first drawing can be a pot and a seed. If your kids draw a new plant each week next to the last one, the poster will look like a graph or growth chart. Small changes will occur weekly, making for an interesting poster or journal. Be sure to record the date and plant height each week, and anything else that the kids notice. Let your kids use their natural creativity to make their poster or journal any way they want.
Peas are a delicious, healthy vegetable that can be added to rice, salads, soups, stews, health shakes, and casseroles or eaten by themselves. They have almost as much potassium as a banana, and one cup of peas has more protein than an egg. They are rich in vitamin C, fiber, and carbohydrates and low in fat. A half cup of peas contains 47% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, which is good for eyes and skin.
To learn more about gardening, visit your local library to see the great selection of nonfiction books about growing plants with lots of colorful pictures.
By Sarah Yale
Sarah Yale is a mom who writes about family activities, nature, health and more.