Is it too early to sow peas outdoors

[SleafordSods]

Living in the NW of England so it’s not very warm but we don’t suffer with the extremes of temperature we had in our last garden. This one is just generally cold and damp…

I think the rule according to gqt is that it is too cold to grow things outdoors until you can sit on the soil with no pants on and not get a cold bum. So I would say yes.

Pea plants are very hardy but the seeds may rot in cold wet soil or be eaten by mice. Once they've sprouted they'll be fine outside now so you can sow indoors in pots and plant out (I planted out autumn sown ones a few weeks ago and sowed more today). Or even sprout indoors on damp kitchen towel and then plant out the sprouted ones. In the NW if you have some gardening fleece to put over them that keeps the cold winds off and gets them going. I love early peas!

Edited to clarify when I was talking about plants and when about the seeds :) some varieties, the smooth seeded ones like Oregon or Meteor are better for early sowing, the wrinkly seeded ones hold the water and are more likely to rot.

Looks like I was wrong about peas. That's exciting I might try some too.

Do! Love the bare bum rule though... I think that holds true for a lot of things :)

I’d give it another month - six weeks at the earliest. Mid to end of march and not until the grass is growing again and needing regularly cutting was our rule of thumb.

My November sown Meteor are ok apart from diminishing in number thanks to the birds. I was going to bung some more seed in yesterday to fill gaps (ran out of time) but I am SW and weeds are starting to grow and broad beans sown outside end of last year are coming through currently.

Yes my bum is definitely not bare. It is nicely covered and is nowhere near the lawn I’m happy to say.

I don't know about peas but my sweet peas have re seeded themselves from last year and grown about 8" now .
They didn;t ask permission from me or my bum , the little scamps !

I absolutely love this rule. We are in the no berries snow to come, late birds, bad winter stage. That’s more for farming, but I have a poly tunnel and this has really cheered me up.

I'd wait until March. I'm sitting next to a box full of summer bulbs that I'm itching to plant - but today we had rain, hail, snow, thunderstorms and sun (west of Ireland) - the weather is unpredictable to say the least. I'm going to start some chilli seeds off indoors tomorrow. Wait a little longer :)

Yes this is also super. We have snow drops. And my spring hyancinths planted by or scattered by excited children are doing crazy things. My lovely, elderly and eccentric MIL left two voicemails for DH asking him to move them inside. 😂

I am more a what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger gardener.

My self seeded annual sweet peas have sprouted and I’m in the nw. I am surprised tbf

I sowed a dozen seeds in a row a week ago. My allotment neighbour who is a frequent source of unwanted advice was telling me very earnestly that it was too early. I explained that if the mild weather (I’m in London) continues they’ll come up and if not I have a big pack of seeds so it doesn’t matter. He was totally unconvinced but it worked 2 years ago so I don’t care.

Is that you, Bob Flowerdew? 😂 (Bunny Guinness at a stretch)

Well, exactly! Well worth a go. Waiting would be fine too and they would probably catch up a bit (e.g. if you waited a month they'd probably grow a bit faster). But I like doing them now as they tend to be ready by mid-late May and I can then use the same space to plant out tomatoes and all the tender veg as it's past the last frost date, so you get more crops for the space.

Do you have space to sow them in pots on a windowsill indoors? I find that planting out strong established plants (harden them off for a week or so before planting out) really protects them from pests (squirrels, mice, rats all like to dig up seeds) and they romp away when the weather gets warm.

Im just above the Dordogne and it's too early for me to sow peas outside. The mice would eat them before they germinate.

I've overwintered them before, but it is quite cold for germinating. If you have a cold frame, or greenhouse you would do better.