3 March 2011

Winter tree pruning provides “pea brush” suitable to guide the pea vines upward. Long forked branches work best when paired with a trellis for tall varieties. In the urban garden, vertical space extends the garden yield so several years ago, I changed from semi-dwarf snow peas to a heirloom tall variety. With guidance from pea brush, the vines scramble up my trellis to an ultimate height of about seven feet.

I first learned of pea brush during my gardening years in New England. The late Jim Crockett in Crockett’s Victory Garden provided instructions:  "I stick the dead, leafless branches of deciduous trees or shrubs into the soil through the middle of the pea trench, forming a continuous natural trellis. As the plants grow they wind around the brush, making expensive wire or plastic netting unnecessary.“ This method works well for the dwarf and semi-dwarf pea varieties. 

Robert Frost thought pea brush worthy of comment. 

Pea Brush

I walked down alone Sunday after church
To the place where John has been cutting trees
To see for myself about the birch
He said I could have to bush my peas.

The sun in the new-cut narrow gap
Was hot enough for the first of May,
And stifling hot with the odor of sap
From stumps still bleeding their life away.

The frogs that were peeping a thousand shrill
Wherever the ground was low and wet,
The minute they heard my step went still
To watch me and see what I came to get.

Birch boughs enough piled everywhere—
All fresh and sound from the recent axe.
Time someone came with cart and pair
And got them off the wild flower’s backs.

They might be good for garden things
To curl a little finger round,
The same as you seize cat’s-cradle strings,
And lift themselves up off the ground.

Small good to anything growing wild,
They were crooking many a trillium
That had budded before the boughs were piled
And since it was coming up had to come.